A project to widening the National Highway between Mangaluru and Karkala via Moodbidri is set to take off finally as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is expected to issue a fresh notification, within two months, for acquiring land as per the revised alignment of the proposed four-lane highway.
The project was in the back burner for sometime as some people had demanded re-alignment of the proposed highway.
According to a NHAI official, when the project is completed, it would be a one-hour drive from Mangaluru to Karkala at 60 kmph. The NHAI officials presented the revised alignment of the proposed project at a meeting in the presence of B. Ramanath Rai, minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada, here on Tuesday.
Accordingly, re-alignment has been done at six places — Kudupu, Edapadavu, Mijar, Todar, Murattangady and Sanur. Earlier, the government issued the preliminary notification for acquiring land for the project on May 20, 2016.
In an informal chat with presspersons after the meeting, S.P. Somashekar, Project Director, NHAI, Chitradurga, said that the 45-km highway stretch between Sanur (Karkala) and Bikarnakatta (Mangaluru) would be widened to 45 m. There would be no compromise on the width.
The final notification for acquiring land has been issued in different stretches (villages) to an extent of 15 km. These stretches are part of the revised alignment. Hence, no fresh notification to acquire land in those stretches would be issued. The fresh notification would apply to the remaining 30-km stretch.
The Project Director said that the first detailed project report on widening the highway was prepared in 2009.
Now, it has been revised taking into account the traffic density on the stretch which is between 13,000 to 14,000 passenger car units per day.
He said that it might require ₹ 20 crore for building a kilometre of four-lane highway under the project. Though the total project cost was yet to be worked out, it might go beyond ₹ 1,000 crore.
Mr. Somashekara said that while revising the alignment maximum care has been taken to avoid demolition of structures and buildings.
Re-alignment has been done in consultation with engineers of the State Public Works Department and National Highways.
