LPG tanker topples on Mangaluru-Bengaluru highway; traffic hit for 10 hours

The movement of vehicles on National Highway 75 connecting Mangaluru with Bengaluru was hit for nearly 10 hours after a LPG- laden tanker toppled at Soorikumeru in Bantwal taluk in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The traffic was restored and normalcy returned on the highway by 2 pm.

The tanker was bound for Bengaluru from Mangaluru when the mishap occurred.

The movement of vehicles on the highway from Mani to Kalladka was suspended and diverted to an alternative route as a precautionary measure. Vehicles from Mangaluru were diverted to move on the Kalladka-Vittal- Ananthadi road.

Those coming from Bengaluru and Uppinangady were diverted to move on the Mani-Budoli-Kabaka stretch.

Using the public addressing system of a mosque at Soorikumeru, the residents were alerted and asked not to light fire in the house, as a precautionary measure.

Vehicles took the Mani-Kodaje-Mangalapadavu stretch to reach Kalladka-Kerala highway and move towards Mangaluru. As all these interior roads are narrow, there was traffic congestion, affecting office-goers and schoolchildren. People in Vittal experienced inconvenience due to the traffic. Tankers and lorries were parked beside the road at Kalladka, Melkar and B C Road.

Two shops had been gutted in a fire after a tanker turned turtle at Soorikumeru junction in 2016. The tanker tragedy at Perne had resulted in deaths and houses being gutted on NH-75 in 2013.

Expressing their displeasure at the movement of tankers during the night, residents said that the rules were being flouted.