Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, May 26: L & T Company, to which the widening of national highway 75 between Gundya and B C Road has been entrusted, has begun the work of laying parallel concrete road to the existing road.

The officials said that the work, which was to begin last year, had to be deferred by a year on account of delay involved in land acquisition and shifting of electric poles, water pipe etc.

File photo

The stretch of the road now taken up for widening is 64 kilometre (km) long. The road work was to begin in March last year and completed by September 2019. The company has initially undertaken widening work for a stretch of 20 km. The work will be stopped during the rainy season, the contractors said. The contracting company also is facing the challenge of having to lay the concrete road even as traffic on the other side, which is normally dense, continues to flow.

During the widening, the road bends would be straightened wherever practicable and in case of road stretch passing through land of lower gradient, efforts would be made to increase its height to level the highway. As this road passes through forest area, the total width of the road will be confined to 30 metres in forest areas and 45 metres in other places, it is gathered.

Thousands of trees and plants belonging to forest, national highway and horticultural department have been axed to pave way for this road widening.