Road works: DC tells MCC officials to coordinate with NHAI

Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim has directed the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) officials to work in coordination with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) where the work on four-laning of the highway has been taken up in the MCC limits. 

Chairing a meeting on Monday evening, he said the city is affected by traffic congestion due to lack of coordination among NHAI, MCC and traffic police. The MCC officials should be in contact with the NHAI officials daily and ensure that citizens are not inconvenienced. The MCC should have all the details on the highway work being carried out in its jurisdiction, he added. 

When the MCC officials said that the design of Pumpwell Flyover should be changed, the NHAI officials said that the work has already commenced. The design cannot be changed at this juncture. The MLA and MP have visited the spot and inspected the ongoing work, they added. 

The DC said that the work on flyover has already been delayed. The change in design will further delay the work and cause inconvenience to the general public, he felt. 

He directed the NHAI officials to take up the work on service road at Bikarnakatte.

 The potholes on Kuloor bridge and road at Baikampady should be filled. The work on four-laning of the highway at Mulki town should be accelerated and completed at the earliest, he said. 

When the DC asked on exemption for local vehicles at Surathkal toll plaza, the toll gate contractor representatives said that the private vehicles with KA 19 registration are not asked to pay the toll. Around 1,200 passes have been issued for the local vehicles, they added. 

NHAI Project Director Samson Vijay Kumar said that barring the work on flyover at Thokkottu, Pumpwell and Kundapura, all other works related to four-laning of national highway from Talapady to Kundapura will be completed by June-end. A proposal has already been submitted to the authorities for the construction of the service road. The technical committee and Ministry of Highway have already finalised the design of flyover at Pumpwell. The work on service road at Kottara Chowki has already commenced, he said. 

He said that no commercial complex will be constructed near Talapady toll plaza. The work on Thokkottu flyover will be completed by December. The work on the service road at Thokkottu will be taken up at the earliest. The four-laning of highway from Thokkottu to Ekkur has been completed. Once the work on Ekkur bridge gird is complete, the work on four-laning of the road from Ekkur to Pumpwell will be taken up, he added. 

Kumar said that though signal has been installed at Nanthoor Circle at a cost of Rs 20 lakh, it is not put to use. Reacting to it, the traffic police official said that the traffic congestion increased after the signal was put to use. 

The NHAI project director said that the NHAI had approved the estimate of the Mescom for shifting the electric poles from the Bykampady new bridge. However, the Mescom officials have revised the estimate once again. This has delayed the shifting of the poles, he claimed. 

The proposal on four-laing of Mangaluru-Moodbidri-Karkala stretch is before the Ministry of Highway in New Delhi. The work is likely to be taken up in 2016-17, Kumar said.