Illegally built bungalow demolished by dynamite
A two-storied building being constructed right on the bank of Upper Lake in Khanugaon was demolished using dynamite in a joint action of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the district administration on Thursday.
A two-storied building being constructed right on the bank of Upper Lake in Khanugaon was demolished using dynamite in a joint action of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the district administration on Thursday.
The building (at 42/1, Riyaz Manzil Campus), owned by Asad Iftekhar, was declared illegal as it is in the catchment area of the Upper Lake and within 30 metres of the lake's full tank level (FTL) area. Any construction within 50 metres of the FTL is not allowed.
Municipal commissioner Rajneesh Shrivastava told HT that the owner took the building permission in 2010 giving false information. When this came to light, the permission was cancelled and notices were served to the owner.
Later he took the matter to court, but could not get a stay. Despite different notices, the construction was continuing and thus a decision was taken to demolish the structure, Shrivastava added.
A specialised team from Indore led by explosives expert Sharad Sarwate used 23 kg of explosives (dynamite) to blow up the construction on 895 square metre.
The entire operation, including the removal of construction material and clearing the area of labourers and then demolition, took about six hours. In all, 416 holes were made in the beams and columns of the under construction building to demolish it.
Before explosives were used, JCB machines and members of BMC anti-encroachment unit were used to break down the walls, roof extensions and other constructions. A huge posse of police was posted near the building to ward off any untoward happening.
Recently, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had conducted an aerial survey of the catchments of Upper Lake along with urban administration minister Babulal Gaur and chief secretary R Parasuram and directed removal of all encroachments in the catchments. After this, the district administration and the BMC have taken up campaign to remove the encroachments.
District collector Nikunj Shrivastava, municipal commissioner Rajneesh Shrivastava, additional district magistrate Umashankar Bhargav, additional municipal commissioners Kishore Kanyal, Pramod Shukla and GP Mali, city superintendent of police (Shahjehanabad) Ashish Khare and other senior officers were present at the time of demolition.