During a special drive today against illegal constructions and encroachments in the City Centre area, the corporation authorities flattened the cycle tracks constructed under smart City project at a cost of about Rs 2.5 crore. The dividers as well as the steel poles on the tracks too were removed using the JCB machine.
Earlier, Collector Anurag Chaudhary had instructed the corporation authorities to demolish the buildings and projections and ledges that were constructed illegally. There were some constructions that were done in the stilt floor parking areas that were meant only for parking and were being utilised for other purposes.
16 buildings were marked for demolition. They include the Hero Honda showroom, a liquor shop, Kotak Mahindra building, Fortune Plaza, Vishal Mega Mart and Bata showroom among others. While razing the unauthorized constructions and parking lots the JCB machines also ran over the cycle tracks demolishing them totally.
Briefing the media, Sandeep Makin, Commissioner, Gwalior Municipal Corporation said that the dividers of the cycle tracks were creating traffic obstructions and as such had to be removed.
He added that after the removal of the dividers the roads in the City center area have become broader. He also said that he will request the collector to keep those dividers that are not obstructing the traffic.
Mahip Tejaswi, the CEO of the Smart City Project said that the tracks that have been demolished today were not built under the Smart City project. However he conceded that cycle tracks are the need of the hour in a city like Gwalior and hoped that more tracks will be built in a systematic way.