Karnataka - Mangalore   

Work on national highways to be speeded up

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

MAKING A POINT: M.N. Vidyashankar, district in-charge Secretary, at a press conference in Mangalore on Friday. V.Ponnuraj, Deputy Commissioner, is to his right.

MANGALORE: A meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary, e-governance, M.N. Vidyashankar, who is the in-charge Secretary of Dakshina Kannada, on Friday sorted out some of the issues that had hampered the implementation of projects to widen key national highways in the district.

The roads being widened to four lanes include Surathkal-Nanthur junction, Nanthur Junction to B.C. Road and further up to Bantwal.

Announcing this at press conference, Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj said that the flyover at Kottara junction, which is part of the project to widen the National Highway from Surathal to Nanthur junction, was expected to be ready in three months. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which has taken up the project, had made such a promise in the meeting. The NHAI and the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom) had agreed to work simultaneously on shifting electricity lines for the road widening project. He agreed that a few issues pertaining to shifting of water lines were yet to be resolved.

Mr. Ponnuraj said that the land acquisition process was in the final stages. It had remained incomplete because of certain “errors in judgement” on the part of the consultants of the NHAI. About four acres of land had to be acquired afresh in 16 villages because of improper groundwork. This was in addition to 24 acres of land already acquired, he said. Blaming improper soil testing at Kottara, which had prompted NHAI to change the design of the flyover, he said the agency had taken about a year to revise the plan.

On the sunken merchant vessel Asian Forest, Mr. Ponnuraj said the company hired by the Japan Protection and Indemnity Club, the insurer for the ship’s owner, had promised to complete a survey of the ship for salvaging the furnace oil in five days. They would wait for clearance of the next plan before going ahead with salvaging of the oil. There was a fear of oil slick as the ship sank with over 4 lakh litres of furnace oil.

Mr. Ponnuraj said the same company, which was hired for a similar operation near Karwar, had removed furnace oil within 18 days of the sinking of a ship some time ago. In the case of Asian Forest, already four months had elapsed since the ship sank.

The crew of the ship detained here would be released once the operation to remove the oil began, he added.

Earlier, Mr. Vidyashankar expressed his happiness over the zilla panchayat revising its target under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MREGA) and hoped that it would spend up to Rs. 10 crore in this fiscal instead of the Rs. 2 crore planned initially.

He said three MangaloreOne centres would start functioning in the city by December 15. More centres could be opened depending on the volume of business.

Mr. Ponnuraj, who expressed serious concern over the accident at Uppunda in Udupi district on Thursday night, said this should serve as a warning for the people of this district as well. In order to curb speeding buses, GPRS system would be introduced to monitor the movement of vehicles from a control room, he said.

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