The row over laying a road through V.R. Siddhartha Engineering College took a new turn with the residents of Kanuru staging a demonstration outside the college campus on Sunday.

Protestors, including residents of colonies located on either side of Pantakaluva Road, which is being newly laid requested the college management to cooperate with the government authorities and allow them to construct the road which would serve as a parallel road to the busy and narrow Bandar Road.

The government recently took up expansion and development of the Pantakaluva Road which was ignored for years, after clearing the encroachments on the stretch from Autonagar to Kanuru and the project is nearing completion. From Penamaluru police station, the road is supposed to pass through the college campus, following the path of ‘Pantakaluva’, the dried up irrigation stream that ends at the Tadigadapa-Enikepadu road.

“If the college paves the way for the road, a parallel road will be created easing traffic on the Bandar Road,” said a protesting local resident.

Meanwhile, students and management of the college expressed concern that allowing traffic through the college premises would cause disturbance to thousands of students studying here.