KOCHI: The principal artery and the high-end commercial street of Kochi, the MG Road, has perennially been in the eye of a storm, that is development. Though Kochi has grown, this busy street, considered as the backbone of the city, is choking with encroachments that have become a nightmare. Encroachments are the real villain on MG Road that has for years been a headache for the authorities. Though the district administration had started a demolition drive years ago with a plan to widen the road, it was abandoned midway. The stiff opposition from a group of merchants to the demolition drive posed a threat to the project and ultimately the drive had to be stopped . The encroachments that were demolished in the first drive in 2007 have again surfaced on the stretch from Madhava Pharmacy Junction to Thevara. It is learnt that there are encroachments ranging from 3 to 16 metres on Revenue land. The footpath has also been encroached in the name of beautification of building establishments. Flex boards have replaced the once demolished boundary walls. With the encroachments on the rise, the footpath has narrowed so that pedestrians can hardly use it.Many of the shopkeepers have placed sign boards and ‘no-parking’ boards in front of their shops, claiming the areas as their own. The pedestrians have no other way but to walk on the road. Moreover, there is also no end to the increasing number of automobiles on the road with traffic bottlenecks remaining a major hurdle. It has become a regular thing to get trapped in the traffic congestion. The worst is when an ambulance has to travel through the MG Road to major hospitals like Medical trust, Cochin Hospital and City Hospital. Stating that the encroachments have come back on the stretch, councillor N Venugopal said that the gold, textile and other shops have encroached upon the road. The encroachments on the MG Road stretch has not been completely demolished, he added. “A leading jewellery shop and a diamond showroom had encroached upon Revenue land. About 3 to 4 metres have been encroached in these areas,” he said. The Jose Junction and Shenoy’s Junction are still in the grip of encroachments. The road towards Thevara from the Medical Trust Hospital is witness to largescale encroachments, Venugopal said. “Though a demolition drive was initiated in 2007, it could not yield any concrete results. Only a small stretch was demolished and hurdles came in between,” he said and added that the rest of the area still remained untouched. “It is time we looked seriously into the issue as the MG Road stretch has become so crowded. Moreover, government land worth crores of rupees should be taken back from the encroachers,” he said. However, the corporation authorities are of the opinion that no encroachments have taken place after the first demolition drive. “There is no encroachment on the MG Road stretch. All the buildings are now within their own land,” said K J Sohan, Standing Committee chairman, Town Planning. All the encroachments have been demolished in the last demolition drive, he added. When asked if there was any plan to widen the MG Road, he said there was no such proposal. On the continuing congestion on the whole stretch, Sohan said some changes should have to come in the floor-to-area-ratio.
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