Mudigere, Jun 16 (DHNS): Traffic was blocked on the Charmadi Ghat stretch for more than 10 hours, when a KSRTC bus tyre got stuck in a drain, late on Sunday night.
The bus was heading towards Bengaluru from Mangaluru and remained stuck in the fourth curve of the ghat section from 11 pm till 9 am on Monday. The road was blocked until the police facilitated the movement of light vehicles on one side around 6 am. The bus was finally lifted at 9 am, Adarsh, a passenger stranded in the bus, told Deccan Herald.
Passengers on the bus from Dharmasthala and Mangaluru spent the night on the road. “The travel was horrifying to all especially children who were crying for food and water,” said an eye witness.
Though the road was blocked throughout the night, the police did not arrive on time. This aggravated the situation, said passengers. Unaware of the traffic block, many vehicles continued to pour into the road and the traffic density increased by the
early morning hours.
It was only in the morning that the KSRTC stopped all buses towards Mangaluru at Kottigehara. The check post gate was closed to prevent the entry of vehicles into the ghat section.
Manjula, who was stranded in the traffic jam, said: “With the closure of Shiradi Ghat to facilitate road work, the density of vehicles on Charmadi Ghat has increased. The sufferings of the passengers could be understood by only those who got struck in the traffic in the middle of the forest. The State government should wake up and deploy additional staff on the night beat.”
Shiradi Ghat road will reopen on Aug 1: NHAI
Sakleshpur,Jun 16 (DHNS): Shiradi Ghat road, which connects Bengaluru with Mangaluru on National Highway 48, will be reopened on August 1, according to officials in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
A part of NH 48 (Bengaluru-Mangaluru National Highway) has been closed for traffic for the last six months for upgrade of a 13-km stretch that passes through Shiradi Ghat.
On Monday, various organisations staged a massive protest rally in Sakleshpur, forcing the NHAI to assure that the road would be opened for traffic on August 1.
The protest rally began from the old bus stand in the town at 10.30 am and passed through the Hemavathi bridge and the temple street before converging at the originating spot. Protesters blocked the highway for more than two hours. They demanded that deputy commissioners of Hassan and Dakshina Kannada, the NHAI chief engineer, the contractor and other engineers arrive on the spot and answer their queries. They raised slogans against the authorities concerned as well as the contractor.
NHAI engineer, Raghavan, visited the spot and explained that since the highway at Shiradi was narrow, it was impossible to take up the work with traffic going on. On the delay, he said the work had to be stopped because of continuous rainfall for 20 days in April. But the work is going on in full swing and is almost complete. Asphalting would get over in the next 13 days provided there is no rainfall, he assured.
NHAI Chief Engineer, C Mruthyunjaya Swamy, explained that it was not possible to open the road for traffic immediately before the work was completed. The concretisation of 9.5 kms is complete and the road will be opened for traffic from August 1 onwards, he promised.
NHAI assistant engineers Jayaram and Nataraj, and Sakleshpur Tahsildar Nagesh were present on the occasion.