A committee of the Mangalore City Corporation has refrained from taking a decision on whether to grant permission to “shift” or “reconstruct” the ‘kalasha’ at Mahaveera (Pumpwell) Circle where a flyover is coming up.
The Standing Committee on Town Planning and Improvement at the corporation in its meeting on Tuesday postponed the decision. The corporation had referred the matter to the committee in its June meeting.
Chairman of the committee Ashok Kumar D.K. told The Hindu that the committee did not decide as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had not submitted a map of the flyover and its service roads, coming up at Pumpwell. Hence it was difficult for the corporation to decide whether it should allow placing the ‘kalasha’ on that land.
The matter will be taken up in next month’s meeting of the committee when the officials will get a map from the NHAI.
Mahaveera Jain Society has asked for the land to place or reconstruct the ‘kalasha’.
However, sources in the NHAI said that officials of the city corporation in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner had been shown the map of the flyover and had been given details about the boundary of service roads at a meeting. Shriram Mishra, Project Director, NHAI, Mangalore office said that once the rain stopped, the boundaries of service roads and the flyover will be marked.
Construction of the flyover has halted because the concessionaire, who had taken up the highway widening work, faced financial difficulties. It is expected to resume either in October or November.
Mr. Mishra said that there was no opposition from anyone on removing the “kalasha”. The NHAI would have to remove the “kalasha” when the work would resume as its safety could not be ensured while “shifting”.
The Jain community had gifted the “kalasha” in 2003 on the occasion of 2006th birth anniversary of Mahaveera and the circle was named after him.
