The Mysuru Division of South Western Railway on Thursday took into its possession its land abutting National Highway 75 at Farangipet in Bantwal taluk after the local Pudu Gram Panchayat rehabilitated petty shop owners who had encroached upon the land.
However, the attempt by the Railways to fortify the 1,000 sq m land with a compound wall invited the wrath of the residents of the village who took serious objections to leaving just about two metres space between the highway and the proposed compound wall.
Residents said that the space being made available was too narrow for movement of pedestrians whose life would be at risk. Commotion prevailed for a while when the residents urged the Railway staff to stop the work till the issue was settled.
Soon, Assistant Commissioner, Mangaluru Revenue Sub Division, Ravi Chandra Naik and Bantwal Assistant Superintendent of Police Saidulu Adavath arrived at the spot to bring down the tempers.
Mr. Naik told The Hindu that the Railways was preparing to build a compound wall around the recovered land and had left about two metres space between the highway and the proposed compound wall. The space was quite insufficient for the movement of pedestrians.
As such, he advised the Railways to leave at least four meres space between the compound wall and the highway, which the former obliged, he said.
Meanwhile, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials said that the road margin was 22.5 metres from the median (on either side of the carriageway). A further set back of 6 m has to be left vacant between the highway and other property, they said.
As many as 17 petty shops, mostly selling fish, had come up on the Railway land at Farangipet and the the latter had been making attempts to recover the land by issuing notices to encroachers.
Finally, when Railway personnel arrived with machinery to recover the land on December 13 last, the local gram panchayat undertook to rehabilitate the encroachers by January 15.
Accordingly, the Railways got vacant possession of the land on Thursday in a process that lasted about two days. Petty shops were relocated at adjoining locations, sources said.