The special demolition squad of the Coimbatore Corporation removed on Sunday two temples that were located along the Sanganur Canal.
The temples were unauthorised construction, Corporation officials said.
A few houses in the same area were removed two days ago by the people living in it after the Corporation told them that encroachments removal was to enable the construction of a bridge across the Sanganur Canal at Rs.75 lakh.
The bridge would link the 100 Feet Road near the electric crematorium at Pappanaickenpalayam with Avanashi Road, Assistant Town Planning Officer S. Ravichandran said after the completion of the demolition. The bridge and the scheme road would serve as a good bypass from Avanashi Road to Pappanaickenpalayam and Avarampalayam.
The State Government had cleared three scheme road projects for the city in view of the World Classical Tamil Conference to be held here from June 23 to 27.
The Nava India road was one of the stretches being made into a scheme road. Apart from the bridge, the other works on this road were a median at Rs.50 lakh and 80 sodium vapour lamps at Rs.25 lakh.
“Soon after the demolition, we began the work to build the bridge near the S.N.R. College,” Mr. Ravichandran said.
Water in the canal would be diverted in an arch so that there was no flow of water at the location where the 60 ft wide bridge would be constructed, he said.
“We faced resistance only to removing the temples. So, we had to carry this out under police protection. The idols from the temples have been kept at a temple behind the Corporation's main office at Town Hall,” he said.
