Can NHAI notification save bars, restaurants?

Though the National Highways Authority of India had provided for denotifying highways in city limits back in 2015, the state government had not acted. This would have saved bars and restaurants in the city from shutting down.

NHAI issued a notification in April 2015 stating that any national highway which has been bypassed, will cease to be part of the NH network but without a bypass ring road, bars in the city may not get relief. Many owners of liquor establishments still believe that they can invoke the notification to get some relief.

NHAI officials said four national highways cross the city and there were several stretches which belong to the NH network because Bengaluru does not have a bypass road. But they admitted that there were several stretches inside the city which have been maintained by local bodies.

“If we had a bypass road, the government could have invoked the notification and converted the highway stretches inside the city into district roads,” he said.

“Though we have been developing roads from more than 10 years, they have not yet been denotified. We had applied for denotification but did not pursue it as we did not foresee this situation,” a PWD official said.