Shiradi Ghat road will reopen on Aug 1: NHAI

Shiradi Ghat road, which connects Bengaluru with Mangaluru on National Highway 48, will be reopened on August 1, according to officials in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

A part of NH 48 (Bengaluru-Mangaluru National Highway) has been closed for traffic for the last six months for upgrade of a 13-km stretch that passes through Shiradi Ghat.
On Monday, various organisations staged a massive protest rally in Sakleshpur, forcing the NHAI to assure that the road would be opened for traffic on August 1.

The protest rally began from the old bus stand in the town at 10.30 am and passed through the Hemavathi bridge and the temple street before converging at the originating spot. Protesters blocked the highway for more than two hours. They demanded that deputy commissioners of Hassan and Dakshina Kannada, the NHAI chief engineer, the contractor and other engineers arrive on the spot and answer their queries. They raised slogans against the authorities concerned as well as the contractor.

NHAI engineer, Raghavan, visited the spot and explained that since the highway at Shiradi was narrow, it was impossible to take up the work with traffic going on. On the delay, he said the work had to be stopped because of continuous rainfall for 20 days in April. But the work is going on in full swing and is almost complete. Asphalting would get over in the next 13 days provided there is no rainfall, he assured.

NHAI Chief Engineer, C Mruthyunjaya Swamy, explained that it was not possible to open the road for traffic immediately before the work was completed. The concretisation of 9.5 kms is complete and the road will be opened for traffic from August 1 onwards, he promised.

NHAI assistant engineers Jayaram and Nataraj, and Sakleshpur Tahsildar Nagesh were present on the occasion.
DH News Service