Siddu assures to take up NH 212 expansion project with Centre

Talking to reporters after visiting the accident spot on Wednesday, he said the ‘Unbatti Kere’ was not so deep a few years and it had dried up for several years.

Over the years, the tank has gone deep due to lifting of soil to make kiln by the people of surrounding areas.

Besides, the seepage from the Varuna Canal coupled recent rains in the area, resulted in filling up of the tank. There are no guards near this tank and even the condition of the road is equally bad. Recently, the Union Government has sanctioned ` 9.2 crore for resurfacing of the road from Alanahalli up to Nanjangud. An agency has already been fixed to execute the work within two to three days.

Siddaramaiah said ` 400 crore project would be taken up on Private-Pubic Partnership (PPP) model to make the existing road into four lane between Mysore and Nanjangud. It was true that there are number of accident-prone areas on this stretch of road and that need to be attended immediately by putting iron railing and posting guards especially near those spots.

Commenting on Tuesday’s incident, the opposition leader said the tempo was overloaded and the vehicle was pretty old. Even there was negligence on the part of driver as briefed by the police authorities. Drunk-driving and rash and negligent driving have also contributed for the mishap. “Tuesday’s mishap was one of the biggest tragedies that had occurred on the Mysore-Nanjangud Road. Six persons of a family have been perished in the accident.

The chief minister should have visited the spot and taken some decisions on the spot.

Nothing prevents the State government from taking safety measures on the national highway. I will once again remind the Centre to sanction the project at the earliest”, he added.