The National Highways Authority issued notices to the owners of the business establishments on M.G.Road in Chintamani. The order states that the buildings are all unauthorised and has ordered to vacate the encroachments to make way for the widening of the road. This has come as a rude shock to all the 'owners' of the buildings on M.G.Road since most of them have shops here from past few decades, having purchased them from the town municipality decades ago. The people who totally rely on the shop they own here, or people who have been doing business here are in a state of panic. But there are also many who feel that for the lateral development of the town such a change is absolutely necessary. But they forget to see that there are many towns on National Highways and yet they lag behind in development, forget being on par with our town Chintamani. The National Highways that passes through many towns just has the road side 'dhabas' and the mechanic shops. So it's not the NH that brings development, it only provides necessary infrastructure for the progress to propel. It's in the hands of the people to make good use of the highway. While this is going to dismantle the main business hub of Chintamani, on the flip-side, could this be a shot-in-the-arm for the good public works happening in Chintamani? Does it help the people by large, by easing the transport glitches? Are the people who protest this new development failing to see the bigger picture? NH-234- a boon or a bane, only time will tell!!
The NH-234 starts from the port city of Mangalore, on shores of Arabian Sea and ends at Villupurum, a train junction in Tamil Nadu, very close to the shores of Bay Of Bengal. Originating from Manglore it passes through Bantwala, Ujire, Mudigere, Sira, Gowribidnur, Chickaballapura, Chintamani, V.Kota in Andhra Pradesh, Gudiyattam, Vellore and ends at Villupurum, a district head quarters. The total length of NH-234 is 780 kilometers.
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