The National Highways Division of the Public Works Department (PWD) has finalised a consultancy to conduct a feasibility study and prepare the detailed project report for widening the stretch of Hosdurg-Panathur-Bhagamandala-Madikeri road within Karnataka which was declared as an NH by the Centre last March.
This move becomes significant at a time when connectivity between the coast and hinterlands in Karnataka has been snapped following landslips at the Sampaje and the Shiradi Ghats.
The proposed NH could be reached from Sullia in Dakshina Kannada at Panathur in Kerala via Aletti (20.7 km).
The total distance from Sullia and Madikeri will be 86 km as against 52 km via the direct route through Sampaje Ghat.
Sources in the NH division of PWD told The Hindu that though the tender was invited last April, the consultancy was finalised only recently.
The consultant would soon commence the allotted work to convert the existing highway into a two-lane road with paved shoulders.
Incidentally, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has commenced operation of mini-bus services between Sullia and Madikeri through this route only, as the road cannot accommodate regular buses at many stretches.
PWD sources however were sceptical as to whether the project could be taken forward as the proposed road passes through Pushpagiri Wildlife Reserve and Greater Talacauvery National Park.
Everything depends upon the Forests Department and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, sources said.
They also pointed out the department’s inability to widen to two-lanes the stretch of NH 169 (Mangaluru-Sholapur) between S.K. Border and Nemmar in Chikkamagaluru district that passes through the Kudremukh National Park.
However, Amrit Shiva, a resident of Karike near Bhagamandala, said work in Karnataka for widening the proposed NH is moving in a snail’s pace whereas work in Kerala is fast progressing. He said the terrain, almost flat except hilly stretches at a few locations with hard soil, is unlikely to be prone to landslides and be a good connecting road between Karnataka’s hinterlands and coast as well as Kerala.
Reports from Kerala suggest that PWD has already commenced survey work for the stretch in its jurisdiction.
