Hanuman, in our mythological texts, helped build a bridge. But in Bengaluru, people destroyed a road for one Hanuman statue.
A mammoth 62-feet tall, 750-tonne Hanuman statue – which is to be installed at Kacharakanahalli, east Bengaluru – has inconvenienced many residents of Bengaluru’s Hennur and surrounding areas.
Incidentally, the 300-wheel vehicle ferrying the statue, commissioned by the Rama Chaithanya Vardhini Trust, was stalled at Hoskote in rural Bengaluru by the police over fears of poll conduct violation. The state government had also asked for a stay on the installation, citing that the land where it is to be installed is under dispute as it is reportedly part of a lake bed. A case in this regard is being heard by the Karnataka High Court.
According to reports, the statue costs Rs 10 crore. Over Rs 3.5 crore of this amount was reportedly kept aside just for transportation and licensing purposes.
On Saturday, the huge vehicle was stranded ahead of the Railway Bridge on Hennur Road as the vehicle was too tall to pass under it. The chaos lasted till 9 pm, after which the transporters decided to dig up the road to allow the vehicle to pass under the bridge.
They discovered they could not take it under the railway bridge, so they dug the road and then removed the Railway’s height barrier in front. They still could not transport the statue and it has been stuck under the railway underpass since yesterday (Saturday), blocking the only road towards the city.Subbu, a resident of Hennur told TNM
“This led to traffic jams in other surrounding areas too. It took two hours to cross a distance of barely a kilometre on a Sunday," he added.
“We heard it’s going to get worse. Everybody is panicking. I was just on the starting of the Hennur Road just after the flyover (near Indian academy), and the full road is blocked (on Sunday morning). The police told us that the road will be blocked for the next three hours and we have to find alternate routes,” said Nadia, another resident of the locality.
The alternate route of Hennur Main Road to reach Hennur is via Thanisandra, which means many people had to travel at least three times the usual distance.
After enough digging, the statue made it through, but the residents’ ordeal didn’t end there. Other than digging up the metalled road, the people transporting the statue broke the median strip as well as the newly installed lamp posts.
Residents of the area are naturally angry as the Hennur Road, until very recently, was in a deplorable condition. A flyover had been under construction for eight years, which led to the road being halved in width.
Speaking on the issue, BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad told TNM, “The permission was given under the condition that whatever they damage, they have to rectify. We hope they will abide by the conditions and rectify it.”
When asked about the timeframe, Prasad said, “They have to do it within a reasonable time of 2-3 days. If we have to do it, then we will recover the costs from them,” he said
This Twitter thread explains the situation.
(The story was originally published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
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