Published On : Fri, Oct 7th, 2022

Tardy task: Work of widening Kelibagh Road going at snail’s pace

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Nagpur: The widening work of Kelibagh Road, which passes in front of the bungalow of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Mahal area, has come to a standstill due to local shopkeepers. Now the help of NMC’s Encroachment Department is being sought to clear the road.

Obstacles in the expansion of Kelibagh Road are being removed one by one. The Encroachment Department took action on the four-storey building in the widening of this road. The third floor of this building was demolished with the help of a bulldozer. Earlier many shops were demolished to widen this road.

The Mahal area is an old settlement and there has been a proposal to widen the Kelibagh Road for many years. After the proceedings of the court, the way has been cleared to widen this road. Being an old road, it is quite narrow. An important market is located on this road. Even with four-wheelers let alone two wheelers, it is difficult to move on this road. Throughout the year, there is a hustle and bustle on the road with shops and hawkers on both sides of the street.

There is a vegetable market next to it. A weekly vegetable market is held here every Wednesday near Gadkari’s Wada. When Gadkari was the Guardian Minister of Nagpur, vegetable vendors were provided alternate places. But no one is ready to go there. After this Gadkari decided to widen the Kelibagh Road. Therefore the market on this route has come to a standstill. Realizing the passage of time, large businessmen already bought additional rear spaces hitting the business of small shopkeepers hard.

One by one the obstacles in the widening of this road are being removed. The Encroachment Department of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation Gandhibagh Zone has started removing the obstruction of four-storey building in the proposed 18-meter widening of the road. The team of Encroachment Department demolished the structure of the building with the help of bulldozer. With this action, a major obstacle in the widening of the road was removed.

Last year a major action was taken to demolish the Shani Hanuman temple in the palace. Since the temple is 35 feet tall, a TTL machine was called for during the operation. The laborers had pulled the top of the temple with the help of JCB by tying the iron rope to the TTL machine. A new mall is proposed for shopkeepers on Kellibagh Road in the palace. Now the number of displaced shopkeepers has increased and a new design of the mall will be prepared to accommodate them in this mall.