Udupi: Navayuga promises to resume NH widening work in a week
Suvarna Brahmavar
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Jan 30: The people of the district, whose hopes of using the widened national highway were dashed after the abrupt suspension of widening work some time back, have something to cheer about. Ramakrishna, project manager of Navayuga Engineering Company, which is executing the widening work of national highway stretch between Suratkal and Kundapur, revealed that the company will resume the work within a week or at the most, ten days.
His promise came forth in the presence of local MP, K Jayaprakash Hegde. Hegde, who had invited Ramakrishna to Brahmavar for consultation with regard to confusions and bottlenecks relating to the national highway widening work on Tuesday January 29, held discussions with the company official relating to reasons for delay in execution of the said work. Ramakrishna also said that the work had ti be stalled because of financial constraints, and that the company is in negotiation with another bank to sort out the issue.
Birti Rajesh Shetty, Brahmavar block Congress president, urged the company to reduce the height of the proposed underpass near Brahmavar, so that the elevated underpass reaches the ground level before touching Akashvani circle. Former zilla panchayat president, B Bhujanga Shetty, and former president of Varambally panchayat, S Narayan, pointed out that the service roads built on either side of the under pass are very narrow, and that vehicular traffic will be hit if a heavy vehicle gets stranded in the service road.
K M Hegde, official of National Highways Authority of India, promised to consider the issues raised and find a solution to the problems.
MP, Jayaprakash Hegde, clarified that neither the union government nor the national highways department were responsible for the delay. “The delayed execution can be attributed to problems faced by the contracting firm. Several leaders, in spite of being aware of these issues, have been issuing misleading statements in public forums, which is objectionable,” he added.
Abdul Salam of Mother Palace, Prakash Shetty, Auto Rickshaw Union president, Raju Poojary, Godwin Menezes and several others were present.