Municipal Corporation of Tirupati removes encroachments on Renigunta road

Tirupati: In its drive against the encroachments in the city particularly on the busy road, the Corporation's town planning department on Thursday launched the removal of encroachments on Renigunta road starting from Ramanuja circle. As part of road widening taken up on the road keeping in view the elevated expressway Garuda Varadhi coming up in the city, the Corporation authorities took up the removal of encroachments.

A corporation official said encroachments were made on the lands, both sides of road, which were acquired wayback in 1982 for the widening of road. On the direction of the Corporation Commissioner P S Girisha, a surveyor was requisitioned from the district headquarter Chittoor, ten days back, taking up the survey along with the corporation survey wing of lands to identify the extent of encroachments. The survey teams also verified the documents submitted by the buildings and shopowners all along the road before identifying the encroachments.

The Renigunta road originating from Ramanuja circle was one of the major roads that were taken up for development under the `Smart City Project'. Based on the surveyor findings, the town planning authorities swung into action for the removal of encroachments using JCBs. The Corporation teams under the supervision of town planning senior officials including Srinivasulu Reddy, Shanmugam, surveyor Muraliskrishna involving the personnel including from the 3 and 4 wards carried out the removal of encroachments which the authorities say would continue till all the encroachments on the road were cleared. The engineering staff from Afcons Infrastructure which is executing the multi-crore Garuda Varadhi works also joined to accelerate the removal of encroachments. Some encroachers voluntarily came up to remove them on their own and approached the commissioner to give 24 hours time for which the commissioner agreed.

The Commissioner urged the town planning authorities to ensure constant monitoring of all areas including major roads and streets for early identification of any encroachments for nipping them in the bud and wanted the officials to clear the encroachments without budging to anypressures.