Development of Agumbe Ghat Road may be taken up in October: Minister

The work on concretising the Agumbe Ghat Road that connects Malnad with the coastal Karnataka regions is likely to be taken up in October this year, Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar has said.

Earlier, the Public Works Department (PWD) had planned to close the Agumbe Ghat Road from December 20 for three months to facilitate the work of concretisation. The government had released Rs. 10 crore for the work. However, as the road passes through thick forests, the work had not yet commenced owing to the delay in getting permission from Department of Forests.

Mr. Ratnakar told presspersons here on Monday that Principal Conservator of Forests and Wildlife had given permission for the work. However, it might not be possible to complete it before the onset of monsoon, if the work were to be taken up nowrClosure of the road for three successive months would also cause many other problems, especially so because the Shiradi Ghat stretch in Sakleshpur taluk had been closed for three months, now. However, the work of filling the potholes along the Agumbe Ghat stretch and repair of protection walls would be taken up now. A meeting would be held with top officials of PWD shortly to discuss the issue, he said.

On the Shivamogga airport project, he said, after the land allotment to private firms that had bagged the contract, the State government was contemplating assigning the work of construction of airport to Airport Authority of India.

Mr. Rathnakar said that total accumulated loss suffered by the Mysore Paper Mills (MPM) at Bhadravati for the past several years stood at Rs. 470 crore. The firm had captive plantation of around 10,000 hectare from which the raw materials was supplied.

There were complaints of mismanagement of captive plantation and misuse of raw materials, which was blamed for the loss.

The State government would soon conduct a study on the economic potential of the captive plantations to ensure proper use of raw materials and thereby bring back the firm on the path of profit, he said.