Owners volunteer to demolish structures

GURGAON: A day after HUDA officials served demolition notices, the owners of eight structures at Hero Honda Chowk on Thursday brought them down by themselves.
The structures come in the way of the flyover and underpass planned at the busy crossing. The petrol pump, however, was not dismantled as the no-objection certificates for shifting of the pump are yet to be passed by the deputy commissioner's office.
"Owners were served notices for demolition on Wednesday. We had told them to shift their belongings as their structures would be razed. But when the demolition team, including 50 policemen, reached the spot, we saw that they had already arranged for labourers and had pulled down the structures including temporary shelters, godowns and shops," Tarun Kumar Pawaria, HUDA's estate officer-2, said. "We only cleared the debris and levelled the land there," he said.
Eight structures near the Shaheed Nanak Chand filling station had to be removed to make arrangements for traffic diversion before starting the construction works. Last month, 18 illegal structures were razed at Hero Honda Chowk in a demolition drive to facilitate construction of the flyover and underpass.
Pawaria said that the Shaheed Nanak Chand petrol pump could not be dismantled as part of the demolition drive. "Though we received orders to dismantle the filling station, we are waiting for the green light from the deputy commissioner's office for the various clearances sought by the pump owner before shifting it. Once that is done, the pump will be dismantled and shifted to Sector 37 part II," he said. tnnThis comes as a welcome change from the past marked by violent protests as in the case of the HUDA demolition drive in Sector 47 recently and MCG demolition drive in Sheetla colony in the restricted 900-metre IAF zone.