Shobha Karandlaje, MP, said on Monday that work on widening 56 kilometres of National Highway 66 from Kundapur to Hejmady in Udupi district would be completed by the end of May.
Addressing presspersons here, Ms. Karandlaje said that the remaining nine kilometres of the stretch would be completed by the end of December. Of the nine major bridges on this stretch in the district, seven were nearing completion. Of the seven, six bridges would be thrown open to traffic shortly.
Of the remaining two bridges, the work on Udyavara bridge was expected to be completed by the end of April, but the work on the Kallianpur bridge was expected to take time.
She had already urged the Union government to avoid collection of toll in the district till at least 95 per cent of the work was completed.
The State government was lackadaisical in dealing with the K. Kasturirangan Panel’s Report on Conservation of Western Ghats. The process of collection of people’s opposition to the Report in the affected villages was progressing at a snail’s pace. There was only a fortnight left for the State to file its report to the Green Tribunal of the Supreme Court. The State should follow the Kerala model on this issue.
The State government had failed in resource mobilization. The collection of Excise Tax had gone down by Rs. 3,000 crore. Due to the power wielded by the sand mafia, the exchequer had suffered a loss of Rs. 4,500 crore. The progress achieved by all departments in implementation of various schemes was only 55 per cent though the fiscal year was coming to an end.
She would urge the Union government to construct an ESI Hospital here as there were lot of organized and unorganized workers. She had urged the Union government to construct a tunnel below the Agumbe Ghat instead of widening the Agumbe Ghat road as it result in destruction of environment
The law and order situation in the State had gone from bad to worse. The State government had failed to implement its promise of converting below the poverty line (BPL) cards into Antyodaya cards, hitting the poor people hard, Ms. Karandlaje said.
T.V. Hegde, Kutyar Naveen Shetty, Gitanjali Suvarna, Suresh Nayak, BJP leaders, were present.
Remaining nine kilometres to be completed by December-end
