Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada C T Ravi said in Mangalore on Saturday that the government had released Rs. 1.6 crore for repairing Shiradi ghat stretch of National Highway 66 and insisted that the pothole filling up work should start at the earliest.
At the quarterly meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme Review Committee which reviewed the progress of development work in the district the Minister instructed officials of Mangalore Division of the National Highways to commence repair work soon.
An Assistant Executive Engineer of the division told the meeting that short term bids would be invited and the work would begin within a fortnight.
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Earlier Mangalore MLA U T Khader drew the attention of the Minister on the plight of the ghat stretch. The MLA said that the condition of the stretch had worsened and it was tough to travel on the stretch.
A Superintending Engineer of Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL) told the meeting that a 40-km stretch between Mani and Sampaje on State Highway 88 (Mani-Mysore) was pending to be widened. A 10-km stretch of this segment would be completed by the end of next month. The remaining stretch would be widened by the end of May, 2013. The official said that according to the original agreement with the contractor the projects should have been completed by the end of June, 2012. But at a recent meeting of the government it had been agreed to extend the deadline for completing the 40 km stretch to May 31, 2013.
The official said that the KRDCL had invited bids five times for widening the particular stretch. Finally the contract was awarded for the fifth time to a contractor who had quoted 13 per cent excess than the estimated cost of the project. The Minister warned the Superintending Engineer that a criminal case would be filed against the KRDCL and the contractor if they failed to complete the work as promised.
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Earlier, Mr. Ravi and Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, took the KRDCL officials to task for delay. Mr. Kateel objected to the digging up of road at different stretches simultaneously even before completing the work on stretches dug up earlier.
The Minister instructed N. Lakshman, Environment Officer, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, to inspect if sewage water leaked to Gujjara Kere at Jeppu and if so issue a notice to Mangalore City Corporation to prevent the flow.
The Commissioner of the Mangalore City Corporation, Harish Kumar K told the meeting that 17 manholes had been constructed at a cost of Rs. 30 lakh to prevent sewage water leaking to the Gujjara Kere.
K. Monappa Bhandary, MLC, quoting a media report said that sewage water was leaking to the water body.