New Year’s Eve on Church Street — popular with revellers partying the night away — will be a muted affair this time.
Work on revamping the road was scheduled to be completed by the month’s end, and thrown open for New Year celebrations, but it is likely to take another five to six months.
On Thursday, when N.A. Haris, Shantinagar MLA, along with BBMP chief engineer K.T. Nagaraj and chief architect Naresh Narasimhan inspected the ongoing work at Church Street, they were bombarded with questions, grievances and demands from restaurant owners and customers. Many expressed their unhappiness with the slow pace of work.
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Eatery's woes
Vikram Dasappa, who runs a restaurant in the area, said that the delay in completing work was affecting his business.
“Construction of footpaths and laying of cobble stones should have been completed a long time ago. We are losing a lot of business because of the prolonged work,” he said.
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Hardik Gowda, the contractor in-charge of the construction, defended the delay stating that the granite slabs and cobblestones were being imported from Italy.
“Every street will have a sound-box and a CCTV camera. This will be one of the best laid roads in the country. Delays cannot be avoided,” he said.
Stating that rains also played a spoilsport, Mr. Nagaraj said that no work could be taken up for two-and-a-half months owing to rain.
Meanwhile, people from the neighbourhood also raised the issue of sewage overflow and lack of water supply.
“We are getting water only once every five to six days. Sewage also overflows regularly as the drainage pipes are old and cannot handle the volume. We want the drains to be desilted and the pipes to be replaced,” said Mathias, a housewife.
However, Mr. Haris said that the sewage issue had been addressed. “We have fixed the sewage system and the water supply is fine,” he added.