COIMBATORE: Motorists oppose the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) move to close the FCI Road to public. Residents living in the area have submitted a petition to district collector Kranthi Kumar Pati and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) commissioner M Prathap in this regard.
According to sources, the 1.5-km stretch houses FCI’s warehouse and is private property. People living in the area used it as a short cut between Sathy Road and Avinashi Road via Gandhimanagar. Sources said the road was in a damaged state but officials did not repair it despite several requests from the locals.
Following this, the people took the matter up with the state government, and CCMC asked the FCI to hand over the road to it. But the FCI turned down the request and began paving a new road recently. In addition to the repair works, officials have started constructing gates at both ends of the road in order to keep general public away from the stretch. The locals recently met with the warehouse manager Lisy and quality control manager Janakiram and requested them not to construct the gates, but it did not yield the desired result.
FCI officials did not respond to TNIE’s calls for a comment. North zone chairperson V Kathirvelu said, “The road belongs to the union government and we asked FCI to either fix the road or hand over it to us. The FCI is constructing gates on both ends of the road in a bid to close it for public. We have told FCI that we won’t allow their trucks via Gandhianagar if they close the road. The collector has called for a meeting in this regard.”
Prathap said, “As of now it is a private road. We have requested them to hand it over to us, but they refused. We have taken the matter to the notice of the collector. Also, we have told FCI that any entrance or gate must be constructed only after consulting with us. A decision will be taken after discussions with the collector.”