BENGALURU: Namma Metro has finally won a six-year-long legal battle to take possession of the 4,440 square feet land on which a three-storey hotel and a small office stood on K R Road. This space is crucial to create infrastructure for the Krishna Rajendra Market metro station.
Mammoth bulldozers were seen razing Hotel Anand Vihar and the office adjacent to it on Thursday. The 45-year-old vegetarian hotel has now been relocated to a rented place 200 metres away.
The High Court ruled in favour of Namma Metro on July 17. “The demolition work began three days ago and we hope to complete it in a couple of days,” a senior engineer at the spot said. “The space is vital for staircases and escalators to the station,” he said.
The North-South Underground Corridor consists of K R Market station, Chickpet and tunnels connecting the elevated stations at K R Road and Sampige Road. This JICA-funded Corridor is slated to cost `707.5 crore.
Pradeep Singh Kharola, MD, Namma Metro, said, “This spot is crucial for us to create an entry point to the K R Market underground station,” he said.
On the compensation to be given by the Metro, Channappa Goudar, General Manager, Land Acquisition at Namma Metro, said, “We have agreed to give the hotel owners a compensation of `9.5 crore but they have turned it down. We also offered
`67 lakh as compensation to an office next to it, built on 440 square feet. This amount will be handed over to them by the KIADB.” However, both the parties have refused to accept the amount. “The other option open to them now is to claim compensation under the Land Acquisition Act 2013,” he said.
Yadu Goyal, co-partner of Hotel Anand Vihar, said no compensation amount was paid so far. “I really do not know much about the issue,” he said.
Though relieved to have finally acquired the land, the Metro site engineer said, had they got the land earlier, construction would have been easier. “We had a tough task keeping our equipment and other construction material while working on station infrastructure on the highly congested road,” he said. After the demolition, work on creating the entry path will commence, he added.