Nagpur: Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) started widening of Tulsibagh section of road in congested Mahal area. Among the old landmarks pulled down on Wednesday were four big structures. As per the project plan, about 33 structures till Kotwali police station are to be acquired for widening the existing road to 24 metres. Due to lack of machines, civic machinery could reach only up to Killa Road that then moves ahead to join Kelibagh Road.
As per civic officials, Gujar Wada portion was cleared of the bushes and the old structure was also pulled down.Thereafter, two individual houses on the road met the same fate. Much time, however, went into demolition of a religious structure that was built much later than the other settlement that had withstood test of time. The team working under cover of strong police posse had to work very hard to break the concrete pillars. A civic official said, the pillars of the religious structure were very strong and quite thick and hence a longer time was required to demolish the same.
As per the plan, action to demolish the structures that stood in way of the proposed 24 metre road would be demolished to speed up the widening process. Already, the road widening work has got delayed and the six month pandemic period further prolonged the unease among the city planners and now there is pressure to speed up acquisition of private properties.
Since Wednesday morning Kotwali police aided by striking force sealed the area that was earmarked for demolition of properties. The area was barricaded and the civic officials gave a go ahead to the bulldozer took apart the Gujar Wada
Earlier, in a last ditch attempt some of the affected parties approached Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court seek stay on proposed civic body’s demolition action. However the court refused to intervene paving way for officials to move ahead with the action