After much delay, the additional road overbridge near Baikampady on the busy NH66 is finally getting ready to be thrown open for traffic. It is part of the B.C. Road-Surathkal Port Connectivity Project.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), after facing many hurdles from the Railways in getting clearances to construct the bridge, has completed the substructure as well the superstructure of the bridge. Work on laying the base for the bitumen road is under progress.
Samson Vijay Kumar, NHAI’s project director, Mangaluru, told The Hindu that if it did not rain heavily, the authority would be able to complete laying the bitumen road in about a fortnight. It also includes connecting the overbridge with the existing four-lane road and other consequent works.
The overbridge also features a twin-cell underpass to facilitate the movement of vehicular traffic from Mangaluru towards Baikampady Industrial Area and Meenakaliya. The underpass would avoid vehicles taking a right-turn at the Industrial Area Junction thereby affecting the smooth flow of traffic.
Proposal sent
Mr. Vijay Kumar said a proposal had been sent to the NHAI headquarters to build a new road overbridge in the place of the old bridge on which vehicles were presently moving.
As soon as the proposal gets approval, the old bridge would be pulled down and a new one would be constructed. The new overbridge too would be built with a twin-cell underpass, he said.
As a result, vehicular movement would not get eased up till the bridge in lieu of the existing road overbridge, and vehicles would have to move on the to-be opened overbridge. While the to-be opened bridge on the Railway line is wide enough to allow three heavy vehicles simultaneously, the one facilitating the twin-cell underpass was enough to accommodate just two vehicles at once. As such, the present traffic snarls are bound to continue.
