Avenue Road traders protest

Avenue Road traders protest

Staff Reporter

They are against the plan to widen the stretch

Bangalore: “Beke beku, nyaya beku” was the chant heard at Town Hall between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday. People were holding a candlelight vigil protesting against road-widening in the city, among other issues. Traders on Avenue Road downed shutters and hawkers wrapped up operations for the day to join the protest. As the project to widen 97 roads across the city, many of them in the central business district (CBD), is set to take off, people want to present their case before they actually get affected.

L.R. Kumar Gupta, who owns a mobile accessory store on Avenue Road, said: “The livelihood of close to one lakh people depends on this road. Our shops have been there for the past 90 to 100 years and how can we move out all of a sudden.”

Satyanarayan, member of The Avenue Road Commercial Association, said: “The traffic there is congested, but there has been no accident or major traffic jam on the road.” Activists from organisations such as the Environmental Support Group (ESG) and Civic Bangalore have joined hands with them to ask for many areas of the CBD to be declared as heritage sites. “Bangalore began expanding from here; some of our families have been here for generations,” they said.