BENGALURU: The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has finally managed to demolish the 180-year-old Shri Anjaneya Swami temple at Garvebhavipalya located on the Bengaluru-Hosur National Highway, with support from local police.
BMRCL needs to handover the parcel of land to the National Highways Authority of India in exchange for a land acquired from it years ago to put in place the infrastructure for its RV Road-Bommasandra Line (Reach-5).
NHAI plans to build a service road at the spot.
BMRCL general manager (land acquisitions) M S Channappa Goudar told The New Indian Express that the demolition operation carried out from 6 am to 2 pm on Monday was peaceful.
“The place has been fenced with a compound wall now. We have handed over 1,750 square feet of land in the vicinity to the temple authorities, which is slightly more than what we have taken from them. We have also handed over Rs 1.5 crore to construct a new temple,” he said.
Nearly 1,000 devotees visit the temple every Saturday with daily footfalls averaging 100.
“Attempts to acquire the property in the past one year were futile due to stiff opposition from locals as well as temple priests. We were being cautious in our approach as we did not want to hurt religious sentiments,” he added.
TNIE had first broken the story about the issue on June 29, 2019.s