MCC to write to Police seeking a ban on vehicular movement on the busy stretch for four months

Mysore/Mysuru: The pending works on demolishing buildings (Nehru Circle till Government Ayurveda College) and widening of the entire Irwin Road will be taken up from March 1 and the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) will write to the City Police Commissioner to close traffic movement on this stretch till the works are complete. 

Sources in the MCC told Star of Mysore that MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde will soon write to the Police Commissioner seeking a traffic ban on this stretch for at least four months. Traffic has to be diverted from the Arch Gate (Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road- B.N. Road) of KSRTC Suburban Bus Stand till the Ayurveda College Junction and alternative arrangements have to be made till the works are completed. 

Irwin Road is one of the busiest roads and connects Suburban Bus Stand to the City Railway Station. The 850-metre stretch of the road from Ayurveda College Circle to Arch Gate on B.N. Road has to be widened either by 4 metres or 6 metres. 

Dragging on since 2015

Though the widening proposal was conceived in 2015, only a portion of the stretch — Railway Station to Ayurvedic College Circle — has been widened. But more challenging for the MCC was the stretch from Ayurvedic College Circle to Nehru Circle which is around 650 metres in length and is both narrow and very commercially developed.

There are 84 properties on both sides of the Irwin Road and the MCC has so far acquired most of the properties and has demolished them as per widening specifications. The MCC has fixed compensation at Rs. 13,072 per sq.ft, excluding the value of the building. For this, Rs. 37 crore has been earmarked. Rs. 25 crore has already been disbursed as compensation for building owners. 

Wakf Board contention

Once the road is closed for traffic, hopefully by March 1, the MCC will take up the demolition of buildings from K.T. Street to Central Post Office. Among the contentious properties is the Jumma Masjid which was built by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar in 1927 at a cost of Rs.38,000. Nalwadi had delivered the first sermon at the Masjid. 

The Wakf Board that manages the Masjid has told the MCC that it does not want the compensation money but the MCC should build similar dome structure and minarets and also provide land in some other area to compensate the land loss to the Jumma Masjid. This issue is being discussed at the Government level. 

The Road has many heritage structures like Unani Hospital, Chamaraja Technical Institute, Yelakkappachari Choultry, Kalamma Temple, Jumma Masjid and State Bank of Mysore (now SBI). The road is sandwiched between two high-density areas — Mandi Mohalla, Dodda Vokkalageri, Kamatageri and Kurubarageri. 

60-feet (18-metre) road 

Funds up to Rs. 47 crore for the road widening and beautification have been provided under State Finance Commission (SFC) Grants. Superintendent Engineer Bhaskar and Executive Engineer Nagaraju are supervising the project under the guidance of MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde. 

After widening, it will be a 60-feet (18-metre) road including footpath. The four-lane road will have a median on the middle and will have box drainage feature. The road will get a heritage character with traditional lamp posts. There will be a smooth flow of traffic.