Preparations begin to widen Hubballi–Vijayapura highway

The highway is an important route as it connects the North Karnataka region with South Maharashtra.

Hubballi: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has initiated preparatory works to upgrade the Hubballi-Vijayapura highway into a four-lane road.

If everything goes according to the plan, the two-lane Hubballi-Vijayapura highway (NH-52) will be upgraded, and people can travel without any hindrance of slow-moving traffic on the busy stretch. 

The 199-km stretch passes through four districts– Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkot and Vijayapura– and connects several towns, including Navalgund, Nargund, Konnur, Kulageri, Kerur, Gaddankeri, Bilgi, Kolhar, among others.

The highway is an important route for both passenger and commercial vehicles, connecting the North Karnataka region with South Maharashtra.

The National Highway-52 is a 2,317-km long major north-south corridor in the country, connecting Ankola of Uttara Kannada district with Sangrur in Punjab. It passes through Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana before reaching Punjab.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the traffic on NH-52 has increased significantly, and the demand for better infrastructure has gained steam.

The road passes through the heart of the towns of Navalgund and Nargund, which are taluk headquarters. The narrow and busy roads of these towns are already a bottleneck and have been resulting in slow-moving traffic, and traffic used to be stuck for hours following big events and protests in these towns. It was a long-pending demand to make a bypasses around these towns and also to upgrade the road to four lanes.

To address the increasing traffic congestion and improve connectivity, the NHAI has called a tender to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for this 199-km stretch upgradation.

Soon an agency will be fixed to prepare the DPR, and then the project will be executed by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).

The selected consultancy will prepare a DPR for the four-lane road from Hubballi to Vijayapura, including Navalgund Bypass work.

Increase in traffic

Former minister Shankar Patil Munenkoppa said after the Covid-19 pandemic, traffic increased by 30 per cent on the highway.

The two-lane road has been causing several accidents, and many people have lost their lives on the road. Hence, it was a long-pending demand from the people to upgrade the road. 

“Bypasses for both Navalgund and Nargund have been approved by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. But there were some alignment changes sought for the Navalgund bypass, as it was not connecting to Annigeri Road. We demanded to make the bypass on the right side of the Navalgund town, which will prevent flood-like situations in the town during Bennehalla flash floods and also connect Annigeri Road properly. Hence, it has been included in the DPR preparation,” said Munenkoppa.