The ambitious Master Plan for improving the civic amenities has finally taken off after over eight years of its proposal, where the heavy earth-movers began demolishing a major portion of City Municipal Corporation building at M.G Road here on Tuesday.
Amid police security, the building demolition work began, attracting hundreds of onlookers. Over the years, the number of vehicles and commercial complexes have increased significantly, owing to which, the city faced parking problem.
Monitoring the demolition drive, the Mayor, Sajjadepeer Mushrif told The Hindu that some 16 roads have been taken up for widening under the project. It may be noted that the government, under the scheme had granted Rs. 100 crore, of which, over Rs. 40 crore has been reserved for Master Plan project.
“We have, this time taken a strong decision of implementing the project at any cost, and there won’t be any going back on it”, Mr. Mushrif added. In the first phase, the road between Basaveshwara circle and Shivaji circle would be taken up.
Even though 95 per cent of the shopkeepers will lose their shops, they are willing to offer the land. Only a few people had objections, which will be addressed, he said.
“ We are beginning to first start demolishing all government buildings on this stretch, soon after that, the private buildings would also be bulldozed to have 100 feet road”, he said.
Mr. Mushrif said that the Corporation has no dearth of funds, as the money required for the project has been reserved under ‘Nagarothana’ scheme for developing the city.
Meanwhile, the people of the city who were watching the demolition heaved a sigh of relief as the project has started off after a long gap.
“The District Administration and the Corporation should now make sure that the project does not face any hurdle and end the project which is extremely essential for the development of Bijapur city”, said, Anand Pattanshetty, a cloth merchant in the city.
