After last week’s landslide that killed three children, residents of Tandraguli village in Kumta taluk in Uttara Kannada dread staying home on nights when it rains heavily. They prefer to stay with relatives or friends.
“So far, we were concerned only about floods from the Aghanashini. Now we are caught between the river and the hillock,” said Ganapayya, head of 48 families residing at Tandraguli fishing village. The houses nestle between a small strip of the river bank and the newly-laid National Highway 66.
“Our objections to indiscriminate blasting of the hillock during the summer went unheeded,” Mr. Ganapayya said. First, houses got damaged by falling boulders. Then the landslide killed three children, he told The Hindu . Though the residents were prepared to relocate, the authorities did not respond, he lamented.
The ₹2,639-crore four-laning project between Kundapura in Udupi district and the Karnataka-Goa border in Uttara Kannada district — executed by IRB West Coast Tollway Pvt., Ltd., for National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) — is in news for the wrong reasons. Apart from the tragic deaths, the project execution has caused frequent landslips at Ottinene in Byndoor of Udupi district.
Ganesh Bhat, who often travels on NH 66, said that earlier this week, he saw a boulder on the road near Honnavar, where a hill was being cut to widen the road. Hillocks are cut very steep, making it prone to landslides, he added.
While there is almost flat land between Mangaluru and Byndoor, the topography changes thereafter with branches of the Western Ghats descending till the Arabian Sea between Byndoor and Goa border. Highway widening here requires hill cutting at multiple locations.
Byndoor residents say the landslips at Ottinene hillock were bound to happen as the NHAI and IRB did not take into account last year’s soil erosion that deposited soil on hundreds of acres of paddy fields in Paduvari village. This year too, the fields are filled with muck.
Businessman Kunjal Venkatesh Kini noted that while earth was excavated up to a depth of 30 ft from the existing road level, no precaution was taken to stabilise cuttings. Instead of slope/step-cutting, the IRB resorted to steep cutting of the hillock that has loose lower soil. Closure of natural rainwater drainage on top of the hill diverted the water through the cuttings resulting in landslips, he alleged.
Udupi Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis, who recently visited the spot, was aghast that the authority did not heed to early warnings.
On its part, NHAI said it needed more land from the Forest Department if slope-cutting was to be done. But, it sought only 24 acres, enough for a 60 m right of way. However, a Forest Department official said, “We would have leased out more land if demanded.” He pointed out that the NHAI did not build retaining walls to protect the cuttings as per land lease agreement.
Z. Samson Vijay Kumar, NHAI Project Director, told The Hindu that work on restoration of natural rainwater drainage on Ottinene hilltop is on and there should not be any further landslips. He said the Forest Department did not allow the concessionaire to divert rainwater initially when the first two landslips occurred. The cuttings would be stabilised properly in consultation with experts, he said.
Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul told The Hindu that the hillock that caved in at Tandraguli was not one among the 28 spots identified as vulnerable for landslip by the administration. Experts from IISc. did not feel that it was unsafe, while the contractor took remedial measures in all 28 identified locations, he said.
