The work on widening of Irwin Road in the city has resumed with the demolition of a portion of the Jamia mosque, which was coming in the way of the road widening project.
While Chairman of Mysuru district Wakf Advisory Council Ghayas Ahmed said the demolition was carried out in the presence of the Wakf Board and Mosque representatives after the High Court vacated a stay, Chamaraja MLA L. Nagendra said the technical hurdles in the path of the road widening work were resolved through several rounds of negotiations with the Wakf Board and Mosque Committee representatives
The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) had taken up a project to widen Irwin Road into a four-lane road in 2018. While much of the stretch of the road between the Arch Gate near suburban bus stand and the Babu Jagjivan Ram Circle in front of City Railway station had been widened, a few patches had remained unwidened due to the hurdles.
Following the demolition of the portion of the mosque, the authorities had begun work on laying a drainage pipeline. Later, the portion of the road will also be asphalted.
Mr. Nagendra, who visited the spot on Tuesday along with MCC Commissioner Lakshmikant Reddy, said the demolition was carried out only after taking all parties concerned into confidence. “They (Wakf and Mosque Committee) representatives came forward and allowed the demolition to be conducted in their presence after they realised the public inconvenience. We want Hindu-Muslim harmony”, said the BJP MLA.
The owners of properties on Irwin Road, whose land was acquired for road widening, had been paid the market price as compensation.
Mr. Ghayas said ₹3.46 crore had been handed over by the Government as compensation for the portion of the land acquired for widening the road and the Wakf Board had constituted a project development committee comprising him, officials from MCC and other departments to renovate the mosque as well as build a commercial complex.
He said the land for the construction of Jamia mosque, which is called as Government Jamia Mosque, was donated by the erstwhile ruler of Mysuru Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar while its foundation stone was laid by the Dewan of erstwhile Mysuru kingdom Sir Mirza Ismail in 1935.
