Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur
Puttur, Jul 26: The newly-concreted Shiradi Ghat will open for traffic in the first week of August, and close again in September for another five months for the second phased of the work.
This was revealed by state PWD minister H C Mahadevappa on Saturday July 25. He was speaking to reporters after inspecting the first phase of concreting work on Shiradi Ghat.
"In the first phase, 11.77 km of the stretch has been concreted at a cost of Rs 69.90 crore. Now work like filling the roadsides with a mixture of sand and concrete and other minor finishing works are going on. It will be completely ready in another 10 days and will open for traffic in the first week of August. Road safety work like construction of shoulder on both sides, installation of traffic signboards, crash barriers and other works are in progress," he said.
"The second phase of work will begin in September and we have plans to finish it in five months," he added.
"The first phase of work began on January 2 and though we had wanted to finish it by May 31, it was not possible due to rains in April and May. Now the work is over and curing process is going on," he said.
"The second phase of work will be undertaken at a cost of Rs 85.28 lac wherein 33.38 km of the stretch would be re-laid. Out of the 33.38 km, 21 km would be tarred at a cost of Rs 22.18 crore and 12.38 km would be concreted at a cost of Rs 63.10 crore. Two contractors have responded to the tenders and their financial bids have been submitted to the union road transport ministry for approval," he informed.
"The Shiradi Ghat work was approved when Oscar Fernandes was the union minister for road transport. With this development work, the problems faced by people travelling on Shiradi Ghat for years have now been permanently solved," he added.
He also said that Rs 1,500 crore was recently sanctioned by the union government to widen the Hassan-BC Road stretch, and the process to begin the work is in progress.
Regarding construction of tunnel road on Shiradi Ghat, he said a detailed project report (DPR) would be prepared soon and already Rs 10 crore has been approved for this work. The tunnel road will come up between Kempuhole and Maranahalli, stretching 21.5 km, and work will be undertaken by a Japanese company. Japanese technical experts will assist in the preparation of the DPR, and once the work starts, it will be ready in four months, Mahadevappa said.
Minister Abhayachandra Jain and PWD officials were present.