Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada B. Ramanath Rai on Thursday instructed the officials of Mangalore division of the National Highways, under the State government, to repair a damaged 7km stretch of the Bangalore-Mangalore national highway on the Shiradi Ghat at the earliest.
Reviewing the progress of development works in Dakshina Kannada at a meeting the minister noted that the stretch between Gundia and Adda Hole in Dakshina Kannada was in bad condition.
An official from the division replied that the stretch got damaged every rainy season due to oozing of water. A group of 10 workers has been deployed in the stretch to ensure that water drains out properly and the drains did not get blocked. The damaged stretch would be repaired when rain eased, using wet macadam mix. He said that of the 47km ghat stretch (passing through Hassan and Dakshina Kannada districts) 7km stretch was in Dakshina Kannada. The entire ghat stretch had been repaired by filling the potholes in 2012-13 at a cost of Rs. 1.60 crore. He said that in the annual plan for 2013-14, Rs. 28 crore had been reserved for asphalting the 47km stretch.
The official said that the highway stretch between Hassan and B.C. Road was still with the State government and not handed over to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), under the Union government, though the process of land acquisition for widening it into four lanes had begun. The highway stretch was likely to be handed over to the NHAI after 18 months.
Shriram Mishra, Project Director, NHAI, Mangalore said that his office had sent a proposal to the Union government for widening the 41km stretch of the national highway between Mangalore and Karkala at an estimated cost of Rs. 283 crore. It was yet to be approved. According to it the stretch between Mangalore and Moodbidri would be widened into four lanes and the stretch between Moodbidri and Karkala as two lanes. The highway between Moodbidri and Karkala would be widened into two lanes due to issues relating to forests.
Mangalore City South MLA J. R. Lobo said on Thursday that if a huge ‘kalasha’ on the Mahaveera Circle (Pumpwell Circle) on the national highway 66 is not shifted by the district administration the city has all chances of losing a flyover there like that of Nanthoor flyover.
At a review meeting presided over the district in-charge minister B. Ramanath Rai, the MLA, said that district administration should take an initiative to this effect. If it was delayed the city was likely to lose a flyover there proposed to be built by the National Highways Authority of India as the NHAI might drop its plan.
The MLA said that the city lost a flyover at Nanthoor planned to be built by the NHAI due to delay in shifting some pipelines.