Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Feb 8: The 68-year-old bridge across river Falguni at Kulur on national highway 66, which is known by its unique arches, will be repaired shortly. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to undertake repairs of this bridge.

NHAI has estimated that ten days would be needed to execute these repairs. It has requested Dakshina Kannada district administration to ban vehicular traffic on this bridge for ten days from February 20 onward. District administration sources said that a meeting in the presence of the deputy commissioner and traffic police will be held soon to finalize the dates.

Kulur bridge (file photo)

Proposal to build a new, six-lane bridge costing Rs 66 crore in between the old and new bridges at Kulur is currently pending in the NHAI head office. So far, it has not been approved so far. The process of approval and task of constructing a new bridge needs about two to three years time. Therefore, the authority has found it necessary to repair the old bridge to withstand traffic till then. The repair works will cost Rs 38 lac.

The authority will give priority to provide alternative arrangement during the traffic ban. As per the current proposal, vehicles coming from the direction of Udupi have to turn right just before the old bridge and move on Kulur new bridge and then move to the left side new connecting road before continuing on the flyover. For this purpose, the road near Ayyuappa road is being asphalted and strengthened.

The ministry of surface transport and highways of the union government had got the old bridge checked for the stability of upper and lower portions of the bridge as well as checking of model and document. M/s Aarvee Associates, in its 2018 report, had termed the bridge as unfit for travel. The team of experts studying Sagarmala project too said that this bridge cannot stand heavy traffic and the NHAI had requested the district administration to ban vehicular traffic on this bridge. Even though the then deputy commissioner Sasikanth Senthil had published a proposal to ban traffic on the road, it was not implemented.