Rain in the last few days has stalled the work of widening of the Kalsanka Bridge on the busy Udupi-Manipal Road in the heart of the city here.
It is on this bridge that four roads meet. While the road to the East heads towards Manipal, Karkala and Shivamogga, the road to the West heads towards Malpe and Mangaluru. The road towards North heads towards Kundapur and Karwar, while the road to the South-West heads towards Rajangana Parking Space and Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple.
The problem is that since the four roads meet on this bridge, there is traffic congestion. Many vehicles, especially buses moving towards Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple and Rajangana Parking Space, struggle to negotiate the turn. Consequently, it results in traffic being held up. The situation is bad during morning and evening rush hours. In order to solve the problem, the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) allocated ₹75 lakh to widen the bridge by about 30 feet.
“The widening of the bridge would increase the space and help big vehicles negotiate the turn towards Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple and Rajangana easily. It would also provide for free left turn for vehicles coming from Manipal to Rajananga,” said K. Ganesh, CMC Assistant Engineer.
The initial work on widening this bridge began some days ago. Though the work order was given a couple of months back, the work could not start owing to elections. The silt in the drain below the bridge was removed and efforts were on to dig to for laying foundation for widening the bridge.
In the meantime, there were rains almost every evening for the last few days. This created a problem as it would loosen the soil and affect the road leading to Rajangana. So, the widening work was stopped. Instead a temporary retention wall is being constructed with the help of stones so that the road leading to Rajangana is not disturbed owing to rain water.
“The widening work will be taken up after the monsoon,” Mr. Ganesh said.
