Third phase of demolition drive from Tuesday

Third phase of demolition drive from Tuesday
The Hindu


HUBLI: The third and final phase of clearing roads of encroachments in Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation will start on Tuesday.

The drive will be a three-day operation, covering 31 major roads of Hubli, including the four roads belonging to the Public Works Department and National Highway passing through the city. A public announcement to this effect has been made by P. Manivannan, Commissioner of Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation.

The Corporation has short-listed 71 roads in Hubli-Dharwad, for clearing them of encroachments to decongesting them and ensure smoother flow of traffic. Seven roads were cleared in the first phase for three days from June 25 and the second phase covered all the 33 roads in Dharwad on July 16 and 17.

The corporation officials sent out special teams comprising officials of the city survey for marking the width of the roads and also the extent of encroachment.

The width of the roads have been marked in red on either side and whatever comes beyond that would be cleared, according to the officials.

On the public works roads and the national highways, the roads will be cleared up to the drains on either side. The marking has been done after giving due notice to the people to enable them to produce the records to justify their stand against the removal of encroachment.

Mr. Manivannan said that if the owners of the buildings are willing to cede two feet of their land beyond the 40 feet width of the road, the corporation is willing to construct footpath in that place adjacent to the drains.

In case of grievances, people can contact the Commissioner on ph. 98909-33999, or the Joint Commissioner (98453-30024).

Mr. Manivannan appealed to the owners of the buildings to remove the encroachments on their own.

He said the corporation will use bulldozers to remove the encroachments.

Mr. Manivannan said that a Zonal Officer and an Assistant Engineer of the Zonal Office No. 9 have been kept under suspension in the view of the complaints of delay in granting completion certificates. Another official of the Zonal Office had also been dismissed from service in this connection.

Mr. Manivannan has urged the people to bring to his notice any delay of more than 12 days by zonal offices in issuing completion certificates or delay in furnishing the required information to him or the Joint Commissioner, or the Superintending Engineer (98803-67649) of the CC cell of the Commissioner's office on mobile/SMS/or phone. The people have also been asked to submit a written complaint on all days to Private Secretary to the Commissioner, Kotkar at the Hubli office and Mr Laxmi Narayan at Dharwad office.