Over 100 illegal constructions demolished

COIMBATORE: In a massive drive against encroachments, the civic body has demolished over 100 illegal constructions on the ever-congested Sakthi road in Coimbatore on Wednesday.

The civic body demolished illegal constructions including shops and buildings on either side of the state highways for a stretch of 500 metres from Textool bridge to Maniakarampalayam.

Traffic snarls has become common on the stretch during peak hours in mornings and evenings due to large-scale encroachments on the road.

Besides commercial establishments, the front portion of a temple, which has been built encroaching the corporation land, was razed down and the land was retrieved.

“After identifying the encroachers and their extent of encroachments, the civic body issued notices several times, but it did not evoke any response. Hence we swung into action and demolished those illegal structures,” said an official.

Besides shops, the front portion of a nursery school, a party office and houses, which were built by extending into the corporation land, were brought down.
A large number of police personnel were deployed to avoid trouble.

In a separate incident, Selvakumar, who runs a canteen on the Dr Balasndaram road, attempted self-immolation by dousing himself with kerosene, after the civic body removed his shop put up encroaching the stretch.