Shantigrama turns chaotic; public stages rasta roko

Demand for construction of underpass, extension of bus service

The work of upgrading the highway between Bangalore and Hassan into fourlane is in progress and the work has reached Shantigrama. 

The village is situated on one side of the road and the commercial establishments, hospitals and schools are on the other side and it is inevitable that the public has to cross the road to reach their destinations.

If the road becomes four lane the vehicles will travel at a great speed and the possibilities of accidents are more. Already such mishaps have occurred, which has created anxiety among the residents, who demand an underpass, which is much-needed at a place like this.

The villagers claimed that a memorandum has been submitted to the Highway Authority of India, but there was no response for this.  If the authorities concerned fail to take steps to respond to their demands they would not allow the works to continue, they warned.

The officials of State Highways visited the spot and explained to the agitators that the work does not come under their purview and assured to bring the issue to the notice of the National Highway Authority of India.

They also claimed that there was no bus facility from Shantigrama to Hassan and though hundreds of buses ply on the route every day, they do not halt at the village, affecting hundreds of students who travel to Hassan every day.

The buses now ply through bypass road and reach Hassan and the students have to inevitably wait until 5.30 for the buses that ply from old bus stand.

Extension
The public demanded that the city bus service be extended up to Shantigrama. KSRTC Divisional Controller Basavaraj interacted with the agitators which also led to chaos for a while.

They staged a road block for more than two hours and the vehicles were seen stranded for more than four kms on both the sides of the road, causing inconvenience to the passengers.