The city’s strangest urban landmark — a balcony colliding with a flyover at Ashok Square — is finally on its way out. After months of bureaucratic buck-passing, the Patre family, owners of the house, began dismantling the protruding balcony on Wednesday, bringing an end to what had become both a meme-worthy oddity and a civic embarrassment.
For weeks, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) tried to dodge responsibility for the bizarre sight of a flyover slicing into a private balcony. The stalemate broke after a high-level meeting chaired by municipal commissioner Dr. Abhijeet Chaudhari, who ordered all agencies to stop “passing the buck” and take swift action.
NIT executive officer Rasika Kawade clarified that the land was handed over to the NMC in 2003, formally ending years of confusion over jurisdiction. With the property now confirmed under NMC’s control, demolition orders followed. While the family has voluntarily started pulling down the balcony, the illegal shops beneath it remain intact. Officials warned that if Patre does not demolish them, the NMC will step in.
Meanwhile, the NHAI, builder of the 8.9-km Indora–Dighori flyover, insists its project followed the DPR, leaving standard clearance. It has now been asked to survey the entire stretch for similar encroachments.
For Nagpurians, the “balcony with a flyover view” was a viral curiosity. For planners, it is a reminder of how weak coordination turned a small illegal extension into a national spectacle of urban chaos
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