As part of the beautification of the Smart City and the Infopark region, the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Revenue Department pulled down around 30 eateries along the Infopark-Brahmapuram Road adjoining the Infopark campus at Kakkanad on Thursday.
The eviction lasted from 5 am to 7 am, disrupting traffic to the region.
The action took place in the wake of the proposal to widen the road to four lanes. The authorities hinted that more encroachments would be cleared in the coming days in various places as part of the beautification of the city.
Out of the 30 shops, 13 were operational and the remaining non-operational. Majority them were wayside eateries and temporary sheds covered with sheets.
Earlier the Assistant Engineer, PWD (Roads), had issued notice to the encroachers in the region to dismantle the sheds on their own. Encroachments coupled with parking of vehicles consumed a major portion of the road which made traffic almost impossible through the road.
PWD assistant executive engineer P T Jaya, Kanayannur tahsildar T A Rasheed, Assistant Commissioner of Police Bijo Alexander, Ernakulam South CI G Venu and Hill Palace CI Baiju Paulose along with around 150 police officials participated in the eviction.
“Eviction notice was issued to these shops two times, but the shop owners refused to leave the place. Following this, the action was initiated to demolish the sheds. Anticipating protest from the shop owners we took action early in the morning,” said P T Jaya.
Rasheed said the district administration has initiated steps against encroachments in the city.
“There are proposals to widen various roads in the city and the temporary wayside shops will be demolished as part of this,” he said.
It is learnt that District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth has ordered to clear all encroachments immediately as part of the beautification project.
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