Shops shifted for Metro Rail work

Shops shifted for Metro Rail work
DH News Service, Bangalore:
A rude shock was in store for the 12 shops lining the Swami Vivekananda Road (formerly Old Madras Road) opposite the police station in Halasuru on Thursday morning as they were asked to vacate the premises immediately in connection with work related to Metro Rail Reach One (Old Madras Road-CMH Road stretch).

Metro Rail officials had earlier given them a deadline date of July 31 and had even reiterated the deadline to them on Wednesday evening (July 30) too.

The shops were small businesses dealing with puja items, xerox shops and low-priced readymade garments. A few of the puja shops were almost landmarks in the area as they were over 50 years old.

A team donning helmets landed at the shops around 10 am and placed a few barricades around, said onlookers.

Demolished
They pulled down the shutters and demanded that the stuff inside the shops be removed. The power connection to the shops was also disconnected. The owners, most of them who reside nearby, came rushing to retrieve things from the shops. The doors of the shops were removed and demolition work was in progress. The entire stretch would be demolished later in the night.

U S Eswar, the owner of the shops, who has been paid adequate compensation by BMRCL, was a relieved man. “I was collecting a rent only below Rs 1,000 from the shops, while their market value would be nearly Rs 4,000 today. It was also not possible from my side to make a few of them vacate. Metro Rail has done a great job.”

On the other hand, there was stunned shock and disbelief on the part of those who ran the shops. Murali of the 75-year-old ‘Puja Bhandar’ shop said, “I am very upset about the way it ended. My family was running this shop since my grandfather’s days.” He has decided to leave the town for three days for some unknown destination to get over the trauma.

Uday Kumar, whose family has been running UKN Puja Shop for 54 years feels the act of Metro Rail was unfair. “As July 31 was the deadline, I had plans to shift my shop items to my residence in the evening. But they barged in the morning and took us by surprise. We have been promised shops at the BDA complex at HBR Layout. I will not be moving out there as this business will not survive there.”