While the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) collects hefty toll from road users using the stretch between B.C. Road and Surathkal with utmost dedication, the authority appears to have failed to extend similar gesture in up-keeping the stretches of National Highway 75 and National Highway 66.
Come monsoon, a 20-km stretch between B.C. Road and Nanthoor Junction (National Highway 75) and another 19-km stretch between Nanthoor and NITK, Surathkal (National Highway 66), sport different sizes of water pools formed out of large potholes. The problem has been persistent for several years with NHAI undertaking pothole-filling work during summer which, however, gives way during heavy rain.
Added to the woes of motorists is water stagnation and deposit of muck on the carriageway that make driving a nightmarish task on the busy highway that has been four-laned under the Port Connectivity Project. Even after a decade of work being completed, the NHAI has failed to provide proper shoulder drain facilities at many prominent places.
The most-affected stretch — between Kulur and Baikampady — poses a serious challenge to drivers, said Dinesh Kumar, a taxi driver from Mangaluru. The carriageway on Udupi-Mangaluru highway has a huge pothole on the left side just after the Baikampady Industrial Area Cross, forcing motorists to suddenly pull their vehicles to the extreme right thereby endangering the life of other road users, he said.
Sharan Raj, an autorickshaw driver, said that NHAI’s apathy to provide a water outlet near the Kuloor flyover results in the formation of a mini water pool just at the entrance of the flyover. Here too, those on smaller vehicles are the affected lot, Mr. Raj said.
The NHAI had promised to completely relay the 39-km stretch of the highway during similar circumstances last monsoon. Except filling potholes and improving certain junctions, no work has been done.
Padil bridge
The woes of motorists on th Bengaluru highway continues this monsoon too with the NHAI failing to provide proper shoulder drains near the Padil Railway Overbridge. The freshly laid bitumen surface on the old carriageway has crumbled due to water-logging thereby causing frequent traffic jams for hours on end every day.
Though another two-lane railway overbridge is ready for the four-lane national highway, it is not commissioned yet. NHAI Project Director Z. Samson Victor said that he is aware of the problems. He said that these would be addressed immediately after the monsoon. Tenders would be called soon for improving the road shoulders and drainages even as the carriageways would get a fresh coat of bitumen, he added.
