News Detail

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The much-beleaguered Shiradi Ghat stretch of Mangalore&ndash;Bangalore highway (NH 75) will get a new coating from March, which will be a &ldquo;permanent solution&rdquo; for the road that is battered during the monsoon, said Minister for Public Works Department H.C. Mahadevappa on Sunday.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Addressing presspersons at Gundia after a visit to Shiradi Ghat, the Minister said 47 Km of the road would be redone at an estimated cost of INR 95.54 crore. The project had received the approval of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and the process of calling tenders had begun, he said.&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">Of the expenditure, INR 49.1 crore would be spent on reconstructing 33.3 Km of asphalt road, while INR 46.43 would be spent on concretising 13.6 Km at the core portion of the ghat, said Mr. Mahadevappa.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">With laboratory tests showing that jelly stones used in aspalting the road disintegrate by absorbing water, the State government decided to concretise the stretch of the road that receives the most rain &ndash; calculated to the tune of 5,000mm to 7,000mm rain, said the Minister.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial"><strong>Diversion of traffic</strong></span></span></span><br /> <span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">The project was expected to take nearly 20 months to complete, and until that time, potholes on the existing road had been patched at a cost of INR 5 crore, he said.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">When the work begins, the traffic on NH 75 would be diverted through Charmadi Ghat, on NH 234.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">To ensure there were no delays on this stretch, Srinivas Murthy, a technical expert from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), had been roped in for the improvement of Charmadi Ghat to handle the additional traffic, said Mr. Mahadevappa.&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">His report suggests that the widening of 39 spots on NH 234 at Charmadi ghat, and work would be undertaken immediately, said the Minister.&nbsp;</span><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">Meanwhile, he added that tenders had been floated for the development of the 27 Km stretch at Sampaje Ghat on the Mangalore-Madikeri road.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>