The Hindu Business Line : Repair Mangalore highway in 10 days: NHAI

The severely damaged stretches at Baikampady near New Mangalore Port and at B.C. Road Town on National Highway No 17 and 48, respectively, are likely to be repaired in 10 days. A team of senior officials from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) — led by Mr Ashok Kumar, Chief General Manager, NHAI — inspected the stretches on Friday and Saturday and asked the contractor concerned to make them fit for movement of vehicles in 10 days.

A delegation from the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Kanara Small Industries Association, which met the high-level team on Saturday, was assured of immediate repairs to the roads. A source in the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Business Line that the team would take up repair works at Baikampady in Mangalore and at Brahmarakootlu in B.C. Road Town on a priority basis. The contractor has been asked to make the 2.85-km stretch on NH 17 and 1.40-km stretch at Brahmarakootlu on NH 48 fit for the movement of vehicles within 10 days, they said.

The trade and industry bodies in Mangalore had recently staged a protest against the poor condition of roads on some stretches of NH No 17 and 48.

Inspection team

Mr Manoj Sharma, General Manager, NHAI; Mr M.R. Choudhary, Executive Director, IRCON International Ltd; and Mr Venugopal, General Manager, IRCON, were part of the high-level inspection team from Delhi.

Sources said that NHAI expressed its difficulty in taking up the work on these stretches. Quoting officials, sources said that NHAI, which had taken up work on conversion of NH from NMPT to B.C. Road Town into a four-lane one under the port connectivity programme, was not responsible for its repair.

Repair work on these stretches were last done in 2001 when they were under the NH Division of Karnataka State Public Works Department. In 2004, the division handed over these roads to NHAI for work on four-lane conversion. IRCON International Ltd is the contractor for four-lane conversion work.

Various other agencies such as city corporation, the electricity supply company and telecom service providers, who have laid their pipelines near the Highway, have to cooperate in carrying forward work on four-lane conversion. The members of trade and industry bodies were told that some of these agencies were going slow in shifting their pipelines, delaying the process of road conversion.