Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Jun 11: Road that connects to the capital city of Bengaluru from Mangaluru is badly damaged from Shiradi. This has caused inconvenience to the industry and trade as it takes longer to reach the capital.
Around 16 km of stretch from Donigal to Maranahalli from Shiradi on NH 75 is totally destroyed. Tourists doubt whether it is a national highway at all. Such is the situation. Now it is relatively hot and rains have not started. During Monsoon the traversing on this stretch will be a nightmare.
If the road is good it takes 6.5 to 7 hours to reach Bengaluru from Mangaluru. But now it takes nearly 10 hours. From B C Road to Gundya, four lane NH work is on. Similarly the stretch between Sakleshpur and Hassan is also going on. At most of the places in it one way and vehicles have to move very slowly. Adding to this delay is the utter bad state of the stretch between Donigal and Maranahalli.
The commercial activities of Bengaluru are dependent on the only port city of the state Mangaluru. Otherwise, Bangaloreans have to go to Chennai for sea port. In addition, large scale industries like MRPL, NMPT and MSEZ are in the coastal district. This delay is causing enormous loss in their business. Moreover, daily use items like vegetables, fruits and grocery items arrive from Bengaluru. This also suffered a blow due to this issue. Social thinker Dilraj Alva says that even tourism has affected a lot due to the bad road condition.
Gundya resident Manohar says, “People representatives should stop travelling between Mangaluru and Bengaluru by flight and use the road instead. They will come to know the reality. Do not test the patience of people of Dakshina Kannada district. Let the people's representatives know their responsibilities.”
Shashidhar Pai Maroor, president of Canara Chamber of Commerce says, “Crores of rupees are lost due to the bad condition of Maranahalli-Donigal road. If it is not repaired in the coming days it will pose danger even to lives of passengers and drivers. We have appealed to union minister Gadkari also. Let them take action against the contractor who has still not started the work even after the tender is passed. The government officials pass the buck on one another. The responsible person or authority has to be found out and a hefty fine needs to be put on them."