Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Dec 27: After the ore trucks resumed their operations recently after a brief lull, travelling on the Shiradi ghat portion of the national highway 48 has become hazardous. On the nights of Thursday December 25 and Friday December 26, long queues of vehicles were formed after the ore trucks got stuck on the road.

This stretch of the road, repairs of which had been undertaken at a cost of crores of rupees last year, had hit the headlines after the road was reduced to a pathetic stretch of bumpy and muddy stretch within a month since its inauguration. Buses, vegetable trucks and other vehicles were however, able to negotiate the ghat section with some difficulty.

Some stretches of the ghat have been concretized and at these stretches, there is a considerable gap between the asphalted road and the concretized portions. The ore trucks which carry heavy loads get stuck in these patches, posing lot of problems for all the other vehicles and particularly the bus passengers who want to reach either Bangalore or Mangalore by dawn.

The fact that it takes hours to move aside the vehicles that get stranded here for want of proper facilities in the ghat, has been compounding this problem.  Already, Volvo buses are not moving on this road because of the damages they suffer here. Unless something drastic is done to regulate the movement of ore trucks on this road, it need not come as a surprise if the vehicular movement comes to a standstill on this treacherous stretch again, as in the last year.