Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha member Nalin Kumar Kateel on Wednesday took the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials to task for the tardy work while four-laning the Talapady-Kundapura section of National Highway 66.
Presiding over a review meeting here, Mr. Kateel said, “I cannot tolerate this tardy work progress which is going on for over seven years. I would immediately intimate the matter to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.” He was particularly unhappy with NHAI’s failure to demolish buildings that have already been acquired by paying compensation for widening NH 66 as well as NH 75 (Mangaluru-Bengaluru Road). Mr. Kateel also took NHAI to task for its failure to provide service roads wherever required.
An NHAI official present told the MP that acquired buildings off NH 75 near B.C. Road would be razed within a week. He also said that the entire work on four-laning NH 66 would be completed by June next.
The issue of construction of a flyover at Pumpwell (Bhagavan Mahaveer) Circle at the junction of NH 66 and NH 75 in the city appears to be facing yet another hurdle. A technical advisor to Mangaluru City Corporation has said that the design would obstruct free flow of traffic. To this, Mr. Kateel asked NHAI and the corporation to hold a joint inspection and sort out the issue at the earliest for the speedy completion of the flyover. He warned the authority not to resort to toll collection till it completed all work related to four-laning of the road.
