Mini Vidhan Soudha to come up on taluk office land

Pramod Madhwaraj, MLA, said on Tuesday that the proposed Mini Vidhan Soudha would be constructed on the present taluk office premises at a cost of Rs. 10 crore. He was speaking at an interaction programme ‘Jago Shasak Jago’ organised by the Udupi Consumers’ Forum here.

Answering a query, Mr. Madhwaraj said that though the soudha was earlier expected to be constructed on the old taluk office premises on Court Road, experts had said that the land was not enough. It had been now decided to construct it on the premises opposite the district police office.

On traffic problems, the MLA said he would soon call a meeting of the Superintendent of Police, Regional Transport Officer and the Udupi City Municipal Council commissioner to discuss the issue of providing proper footpaths and zebra crossings for pedestrians.

A traffic management centre was expected to be set up here. Some new equipment to control traffic would be purchased at a cost of Rs. 15 lakh. As many as 30 low-floor government buses would function in the city once the 36 cents of Old DDPI Office land was handed over to the Karnataka Road Transport Corporation. A bus stop would be constructed opposite the district government hospital, he said.

To a question, he said that a jetty would be constructed at the St. Mary’s Island so that tourists need have to change boats to alight there. The task of maintaining cleanliness on the island would be handed over to a private agency.

Regarding garbage collection, he said that of the 35,000 houses in the city, door-to-door collection was being done only from 25,000 houses. The Udupi CMC was planning to hand over garbage collection to a private agency on the lines of what was being done in the Mangaluru City Corporation, he said. On the non-functioning of geriatric ward at the district government hospital, the MLA said that there was a shortage of doctors and other staff in the Health Department because there had been no recruitment for the last eight years. Now the government had started the recruitment process, he said.

He said that the present building of Vishweshwarayya Market would be demolished and a new building would be constructed in its place under the Design, Build, Operate and Transfer mode.