Subway locked for 355 days, open for 10 days

How long will this continue?

Sir,

The unused subway near K.R. Hospital on Sayyaji Rao Road has become a classic example of infrastructure without purpose. (Closed subways get Dasara facelift, Star of Mysore dated Sept. 20)

For nearly 355 days every year, the subway remains locked. It is opened during Dasara for crowd management and once the festivities end, the gates are shut again for another year.

The same cycle continues — paint the subway, open it for Dasara, close it again.

This issue has already been highlighted through newspaper articles and representations over the past two years, yet there has been no meaningful solution.

Last year, the then Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner Shaik Tanveer Asif had assured that the subway would be opened throughout the year. That promise too has fallen by the wayside.

Now, instead of addressing the basic question of whether this subway is actually required, taxpayers’ money is reportedly being spent on another unscientific chajja / structure outside it, whose usefulness is questionable.

Meanwhile, the subway continues to affect the visibility and accessibility of legitimate shops around it, while its unused spaces are vulnerable to becoming a source of public nuisance and sanitation problems.

How long will Mysuru continue spending money on a structure that remains locked for most of the year?

MCC must stop temporary cosmetic measures and take a permanent, transparent decision: either make the subway genuinely functional throughout the year or demolish it after a proper technical assessment.

Public money should create public value. Not maintain an annual ritual.

—Anwar Baig, Ismail Optical Co.

Sayyaji Rao Road

21.9.2026