An 8-km stretch of the Hemmadi-Kollur Road that carries a majority of tourist vehicles to the temple town of Kollur is being widened to 11 m by the Public Works Department.
Kollur is about 30 km from Hemmadi Junction that is located 8 km north of Kundapur on Kochi-Panvel National Highway 66. Tourist vehicles from different places, including those from Kerala, take this road to reach Kollur via Vandse.
The undulating and winding road falls under four different State Highways/ Major District Roads, including Hemmadi-Devalkunda Major District Road and Virajpet-Byndoor State Highway, and passes through Kundapur and Byndoor Assembly constituencies. While it was widened to 5.5 m a few years ago, people’s representatives and the department felt that the width was insufficient to cater to the increasing vehicular traffic.
ADVERTISEMENT
PWD’s Assistant Engineer in Kundapur Raghavendra Naik told
Funds were being arranged from State Highway Development Project for widening the road stretch by stretch. At present, the road is being widened between Hemmadi and Nempu Cross, just before Vandse town. An estimated ₹ 42 crore was being spent on the widening work, Mr. Naik said.
Though the widening work commenced in December last, it almost came to a halt during the COVID-19 lockdown only to resume after the South-West monsoon rain subsided. Yet, widening was getting affected on some stretches due to delay in shifting electricity poles as well as objections from the Forest Department.
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, the Virajpet-Byndoor State Highway too would be widened between Nempu Cross and Vandse to a width of 7 m shortly, Mr. Naik said. Thus, the Hemmadi-Kollur Road would be widened to a sufficient width stretch by stretch, he added. Some small stretches of the road between Hemmadi and Nempu Cross that were already widened to 7 m would also remain as they are.