Closure of ghat roads hits temple, beach tourism in DK

Footfall to Kukke Subrahmanya temple has dipped alarmingly

Kukke Subrahmanya wears a deserted look now owing to the closure of three ghat roads, Shiradi, Sampaje and Bisle, leading to the temple town.

A popular small hotel Lakshmi Nivas, frequented by locals and travellers for its well known ‘KTea’, at Kalladka on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru national highway looks almost empty now. There are no more scenes of people standing and savouring tea and no more tourists on the highway demanding supply to their cars.

The nearly four-decade-old Kalladka Tea Hotel is a stopover for many travellers particularly to enjoy its way of serving tea and coffee.

The regular transparent glass shows the decoction – be it tea or coffee – swirling atop the milk.

The glass, in typical local fashion, would be sitting inside a small stainless steel bowl with a spoon placed beside it to stir the beverage. “Our business has come by down by 50%,” said owner Shivarama Holla pointing out to the closure of the three ghat roads – Shiradi, Sampaje and Bisle – leading to Dakshina Kannada.

The hotel industry between Mangaluru and Sakleshpur, and between Mangaluru and Madikeri has been severely hit and temple and beach tourism have suffered due to the closure of the ghat roads. The worst hit are hotels and lodges in Kukke Subrahmanya to which the three ghat roads provided crucial connectivity. Footfall to Kukke Subrahmanya temple, the highest revenue earning muzrai temple in the State, has dipped alarmingly.

Executive Officer of the temple Ravindra M.H. told

The Hindu that the temple now has between 1,000 and 2,000 visitors daily against the usual 5,000 to 10,000.

It now conducted between 30 and 40 ‘sarpa samskara’ sevas daily against the 150 earlier. Many are cancelling the bookings.

The temple earned a revenue of about ₹96 crore during 2017-18 which was up from the ₹89 crore collected in 2016-17. The State highway linking Kukke Subrahmanya with Mangaluru-Mani-Mysuru highway has also collapsed at Kallaje near Kukke Subrahmanya forcing buses to take round about routes. Hence the temple town now wears a deserted look.

Yatish Baikampady, Chief Executive Officer, Panambur Beach Tourism Development Project, said that number of tourists to Panambur and Tannirbavi beaches have come down.

The two beaches were also attracting tourists directly from Bengaluru and Mysuru.

“Imagine there was only one tourist car in our parking lot yesterday,” he added.