A five-year-old proposal to widen the 90-km stretch from Mulki to Thokkottu via Kateel, Bajpe, Polali, B.C. Road and Mudipu has been revived.
According to a top official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), this proposal is now before the authority for preparing a feasibility report.
Shriram Mishra, Project Director, Mangalore Project Office, NHAI, said that the proposal came up for discussion at a meeting chaired by Union Minister for Transport and Highways Oscar Fernandes in Bangalore about two months ago. The minister instructed to appoint a consultant to prepare a feasibility report of the project aimed at making the stretch a four-lane road and the NHAI is looking into it.
According to the proposal, the stretch, which starts at Mulki on NH 66 ends on the same highway at Thokkottu, near Ullal. It is aimed at easing the traffic congestion on National Highway 66, between Mulki and Thokkottu, and on National Highway 75, between Mangalore and B.C. Road.
Best way
Mr. Mishra said that widening of the road would be the best way forward to address traffic congestion on the 35-km highway stretch between Mulki and Thokkottu on NH 66, which was becoming the part of an expanding city.
Five years ago the State Public Works Department had sent a proposal for widening the 90-km stretch for the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The then Chairman of the NHAI N. Gokulram had visited Mangalore on March 14, 2008 to assess the feasibility of this project and to also to review the progress of the four-lane work between Surathkal and B.C. Road.
Mr. Gokulram had held discussions with the then Deputy Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao, officials of the Mangalore City Corporation, the Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom) and the NHAI. The proposal had not got any impetus thereafter.
