In Grozny, residents of Khankalskaya Street disagree with house demolition

Private households and other structures are demolished in Khankalskaya Street in Grozny. The authorities explain this by the need to expand the roadway and make exit from central Grozny as comfortable as possible. Residents of the street are indignant that their opinion was not taken into account.

Khankalskaya Street is at the exit from Grozny in the direction to the main Russian military base in Khankala and to the city of Argun. Several months ago the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov said that the highway running from central Grozny should be straight and essentially broadened, and ordered to address the issue.

"The demolition of houses and other structures along Khankalskaya Street is a must. Laying a straight road will greatly relieve the city centre from intense traffic flow," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the administration of the Chechen capital.

Nevertheless, the tenants of Khankalskaya Street and local businessmen express serious dissatisfaction with what is happening.

"We live here for more than 20 years. We built our house and had to restore it after the two Chechen Wars. Now, we were announced here that Ramzan Kadyrov had ordered to demolish everything here and lay down some new highway. Construction of a new household and accommodation in a new place need a lot, first of all, time," one of the housewives from Khankalskaya Street told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Another local resident said that he had a cafe, which will now be demolished. "I was forced to dismantle everything; otherwise, they'd have ruined everything with bulldozers and taken to a landfill. For my own money I bought a land plot for construction, hired workers, built everything and paid all the rental fees and taxes. Now, nobody is asked whether he wants to move to another place and build a new house or an object. The compensations we receive in no case compensate all the expenses and losses that we suffer," he said.