Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that his Cabinet colleague D.V. Sadananda Gowda will hold a meeting of officials of the State government and the National Highways Authority of India in Bengaluru next month to sort out land acquisition issues concerning highway projects in Dakshina Kannada.
At a meeting convened in New Delhi to review highway projects in Dakshina Kannada attended by Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mr. Sadananda Gowda and NHAI officials on Friday, it was brought to Mr. Gadkari’s notice that abnormal delay in land acquisition had been hampering progress of different projects.
They include four-laning of NH 75 between B.C. Road and Adda Hole, construction of new four-lane bypass highway connecting Mulki-Kinnigoli-B.C. Road-Melkar-Thokkottu, widening of NH 169 between Kulashekara and Karkala via Moodbidri and completion of the vexed Pumpwell Flyover on NH 66 in Mangaluru.
Mr. Gadkari said that the meeting to be chaired by Mr. Sadananda Gowda should speed up land acquisition process as well as completion of long-pending works, according to a communiqué from the MP’s office.
Sampaje Ghat
Meanwhile, the National Highways Division of Public Works Department on Friday said that the longitudinal crack observed at km 94 on NH 275 of Sampaje Ghat (Mani-Madikeri-Mysuru) near Katikere in Kodagu district on Thursday has been attended to.
In a statement here, the department said that an 8-m crack on the right side of the highway where a slide slope had collapsed last year, was filled with cement slurry.
Action was also taken to drain off surface water on the carriageway to safer places.
While the Kodagu district administration has banned movement of very heavy vehicles on the stretch during the monsoon, other vehicles, including passenger buses, can operate on the Ghat stretch, the department said.
