Shiradi Ghat repair by Nov, but road may open in Aug: PWD minister

The ongoing repair of the Shiradi Ghat road will be completed before November but the work sufficient to reopen the stretch for traffic will get over by August 1, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister H C Mahadevappa told the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

In a written answer to a question asked by Congress MLC Ivan D’Souza, the minister stated that if the repair could not be completed by the end of July because of heavy rainfall, the road would be thrown open for traffic only after all the repair and curing works were over.

Mahadevappa acknowledged that following the ban on vehicular movement on the Shiradi Ghat road (which is part of National Highway 48), the six alternative roads are seeing traffic congestion. Traffic has also been affected on Charmadi Ghat as heavy vehicles ply on it and because the road is two-way. He said  the government had taken steps to repair the alternative roads too.

B’luru-Mysuru road

The PWD minister also stated that Karnataka would soon submit to the Union government a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on upgrading the Bengaluru-Mysuru Road (NH 275) into six lanes. The project is estimated to cost Rs 3,611 crore.

In a written reply to a query by the BJP’s B J Puttaswamy, Mahadevappa stated that the accurate cost of the project would be known once the DPR was ready.

A private consultancy, which quoted Rs 2.36 crore for its services, has been appointed to prepare the DPR. A proposal for the project has already been submitted to the Centre, which has approved finalising the alignments and preparing the DPR.

As part of the project, bypasses would be built around Bidadi, Ramanagar, Channapattana and Mandya. The land required for the six-lane road would be acquired once the Centre approved the DPR, he added.