KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Dec 2: A 40-year-old landmark eatery near Tatanagar railway station was demolished by the railway on Friday following a high court order.
Popularly known as Singh Hotel, it was set up on an encroached land of the railway, which had become a bone of contention for the Chakradharpur railway divisional authority for a long time.
The demolition was carried out by the Tatanagar railway’s engineering department in presence of the Railway Protection Force and Bagbera police personnel. An excavator was pressed into service besides the manpower for razing the unauthorised structure with zero resistance from the owner of the eatery.
One Kuli Singh hailing from Uttar Pradesh had set up the eatery along the Station-Parsudih Road under the Bagbera police station area in the year 1980.
Though the railway authority had time and again tried to remove the eatery for the past 25 years, but Kuli Singh had succeeded to save the hotel by obtaining a stay order from the high court. The Jharkhand high court on Wednesday finally gave its verdict in favour of the railway, intimating the eatery owner to vacate the railway land.
Senior divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur, Manish Pathak said Singh Hotel was in the focus of the railway authority as the land on which the eatery was set up was in a prime location.
“I have instructed the Railway Land Development Authority to come out with a suitable project at the stretch of land where the Singh Hotel would stand. Soon a passenger-friendly project will come up at the place which has been made free of encroachment, ” said Pathak while talking to this correspondent.
A bystander Deepak Prakash who was watching the demolition drive seemed concerned about the fallout of the removal of the eatery.
“Though set up on an encroached railway land, the eatery would instil a sense of security among the commuters as it would remain open round the clock. Until some new project comes up there, the stretch on the Station-Parsudih Road will remain not so safe,” observed Deepak.
