Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur (SB)

Puttur, Jul 28: The movement of excessively loaded vehicles and ore trucks is banned on district roads including 37-km-long stretch of Shiradi Ghat on national highway 48 from Monday July 27 midnight to August 31 through an order issued by the district administration. Though the above said decision was taken considering the possibility of the normal life of the people of the district being thrown out of gear due to road accidents, bridges getting damaged and the roads suffering extensive damages during monsoon, now it seems that the ban has been imposed a tad bit late with damage already being done.

In a major inconvenience to the frequent commuters to Bangalore from Mangalore, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses have stopped plying on the stretch in a self-imposed ban. Few of the private buses too have opted to ply on narrow Charmadi ghat section or Madikeri-Mysore road to Bangalore. The reason being heavy damages suffered by Shiradi Ghat section due to plying of thousands of trucks from different parts of Karnataka carrying iron ore, granite and petroleum tankers along with the late but heavy monsoon in the Western Ghats.

It can be recalled here that last monsoon too the buses had abandoned Shiradi Ghat stretch and switched over to Madikeri-Mysore road to reach Bangalore. Few of the buses including KSRTC Volvo bus service permanently switched over to Madikeri-Mysore road. Though Shiradi ghat section was repaired during the H D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-BJP coalition regime with Congress-led UPA regime at the Centre agreeing to release funds for the works, the repairs did not last long enough with Shiradi ghat section suffering damages. 

Soon the matter figured at the high court (HC), which directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe alleged irregularities in the repair of the Shiradi Ghat section (between Sakleshpur and Uppinangady) in assistance with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and technical experts from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. The repairs were taken up afresh after the HC’s interevention and public transport as well as good transport vehicles were allowed to ply again. But the Shiradi ghat section suffered further damages even before the commencement of monsoon season this year mainly due to movement of heavy vehicles, a persisting problem which needs a permanent solution.

People of this part of the region are now pinning their hopes for a solution on facelift assured by the Centre with releasing Rs 100 crore bonanza for cement concrete work. Public works minister C M Udasi on June 22, 2009 had informed that union road transport and highways ministry has given clearance in principle for Rs 100 crore proposal of the state government’s to lay concrete road in the ghat section. However, the proposal is yet to get the official approval and actual concretization till then will remain a mirage.