Speaking to Deccan Herald, a National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) official said the embankment would have also weakened due to the vibrations caused during the construction of a new bridge adjacent to the old one as part of the four-laning of NH from Kundapur to Talapady. The heavy vehicular traffic, too, had added to the weakening of the embankment.
“We are constructing a new concrete wall that will be ready by Saturday. In the meantime, we have placed sand bags to avoid further caving in of the wall. The traffic may be affected for a day or two,” sources added. The one-way traffic to facilitate the work on the embankment also leads to utter chaos with vehicles being piled up for several hours.
“To reach Mangalore from Talapady, a bus usually takes a maximum of 40 minutes. However, with the collapse of the retaining wall and introduction of one-way traffic on the bridge, it takes more than two and a half hours,” said a bus conductor.
“We are not able to follow our routine bus timings. A few buses had stopped their trips as they failed to keep up the time due to blocks. Owing to the fewer bus service, the ones that are plying are packed to capacity,” he added.
With traffic jam being the order of the day, two- and four-wheelers violate traffic rules by moving in a haphazard manner breaking the lane discipline, which further aggravated the gridlock. Students and office-goers usually do not wait for the gridlock to clear.
