NH widening: Demolition drive in Birur from next week

Public meet held to finalise the plan of widening NH

He was addressing a public meet intended to finalise the plan of widening the NH here on Thursday.

Speaking on behalf of the public, Town Municipal Council former President K M Vinayak and M P Dayanand urged that the widening of the highway should be limited to 40 feet. “The road has been widened only by 38-40 ft in places like Bhadravathi, Arasikere and Gubbi. If the NH in Birur town is widened by 50 ft as proposed, a number of commercial complexes, the sources of revenue to the local bdy, will have to be demolished,” they explained.

There are 40 families in the area that need to be evacuated. Besides, one need to leave space to install pipelines supplying water to the town from the Bhadra. Keeping all these in view, the road widening should be limited to 40 feet, they urged.

Replying to the plea, Engineer and the Subdivisional Officer said the NHAI has the power to widen the highway up to 70 feet in a TMC limit. “But before they jump into action, we have intervened to limit the widening area to 50 feet. If the NHAI directly takes up steps, it will be ruthless to widen the road up to 70 feet,” they said.

Former MLA K B Mallikarjun said the NH can be widened up to 69.7 ft in TMC limits and hence the town planning officials give license to carry out any constructions only with a gap of 70 ft. “Let’s not be confused. The officials should limit the widening to 43-45 ft. There are some unused conservancies in the town and the officials should allow the poor to construct their houses there,” he suggested.

Finally, the subdivisional officer said that the widening will be limited to 43 feet and asked the public to evacuate within three months.

Tahsildar B R Roopa, Zilla Panchayat President K M Kemparaj, police officials Mallikarjunappa, Sathish, TMC Chief Officer Manjunath, engineer Vasanth Kumar and others were present.