The issue of the dismal condition of the highways dominated the District Development Coordination and Vigilance Committee (DDCVC) meeting chaired by Shobha Karandlaje, MP, here on Friday.
Ms. Karandlaje said that she was receiving a lot of complaints about the upkeep of the National Highway 66. Samson Vijay Kumar, Project Director, Mangaluru Division, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said that of the 90 km stretch of National Highway from Hejmady to Kundapur, widening work had been completed on 82 km.
Financial shortfall
The work got delayed because of financial shortfall at the contractor’s end. However, now ₹11 crore had been released and work would be expedited. This stretch would be ready by March, 2018. Of the 42 km of service road on this stretch, work on 38 km had been completed. An additional 12 km of service road work would be taken up because of public demand, he said.
When the Executive Officer of Kundapur Taluk Panchayat complained about traffic at Basrur-Murukai junction as the road of NH 66 and that of a State highway there were not at the same level, Mr. Kumar said the matter would be looked into. Barricades would be put up to avoid accidents, he said.
Police protection
When Mr. Kumar said that the district administration was not providing adequate police protection while undertaking works in difficult reaches despite receiving letters requesting the same, Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said that the letters written were of a general nature. No dates on when the road works would be undertaken were mentioned in those letters. If the dates were mentioned, then protection could be provided, she said.
Ms. Francis also directed Mr. Kumar to remove the shrubs grown on the road medians on the NH66 stretch and plant saplings there.
Manjunath Nayak, Assistant Engineer, NHAI, Sringeri, said that the construction of Tirthahalli-Malpe National Highway 169A would be taken up in four phases. Already, two Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) had been submitted to the head office with estimated cost. Accordingly, two stretches – Tirthahalli to Kamrady and Parkala to Malpe would be developed at a cost of ₹110 crore each respectively.
An amount of ₹118 crore had been released from the Central Road Fund for development of 20 roads out of a total of 36 proposals submitted. The action on the remaining 16 proposals was expected soon, he said.
