Shobha Karandlaje, MP, on Monday threatened to get Navayuga Udupi Tollway Pvt. Ltd. blacklisted for the extremely slow pace of work in widening the National Highway 66 from Talapady to Kundapur.
She was chairing the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (Disha) at the Zilla Panchayat Hall here.
Ms. Karandlaje said that there were numerous complaints against the slow pace of road widening work. Deadlines were only getting extended.
The work on the flyover at Shastri Park in Kundapur showed no sign of completion and even the construction of an overpass at Karavali Junction in Udupi and widening of the road in Padubidri had not been completed.
There were also complaints that the service roads close to the highway had not been completed. “All these are only leading to road accidents and loss of human lives. How many more people should die? The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should blacklist the company. Only the threat of black-listing will force it to work,” she said.
Samson Vijay Kumar, Project Director, NHAI, Mangaluru Zone, said that the delay had taken place when the company was facing cash problem. Now, its cash flow problem had been solved. The overpass at the Karavali Junction and the widening of the road at Padubidri would be completed by December 2018. The flyover at Shastri Circle would be completed by March 2019. Of the 36 kilometres of service road on NH 66, 30 kilometres had already been constructed, he said.
Dinakar Babu, president of the Zilla Panchayat, said that Navayuva should immediately repair the water pipeline that had broken down at Kadekar village due to road widening work or bear the water tanker bills for water being supplied to the village by the gram panchayat.
To a query from Ms. Karandlaje, an officer from Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. said that the construction of a railway station at Innanje village at a cost of ₹ 11.33 crore would be completed by February 2019. The construction of the Ramakrishna Hegde Institute for Skill Development would be completed at a cost of ₹ 2 crore here by November, 2018.
The buildings related to this institute would be constructed under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund. The electrification of Konkan Railway line from Verna to Thokur would be completed by March 2020, he said.
Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis was present.
