Landslide brings 150 buses to halt on Charmadi Ghat

More than 150 buses including 80 belonging to the KSRTC were stranded on the Charmadi Ghat since Monday evening due to landslide. The movement of vehicles resumed only on Tuesday afternoon after the debris was removed.

The first land slip occurred at 5 pm on Monday and initially, the debris were removed a few hours later. However, landslides occurred at nine more locations hampering vehicular movement, said Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police, B R Ravikanthe Gowda. He said that the engineers were on the spot to assess the damage and begin repairs at the earliest. More number of vehicles take Charmadi Ghat following the closure of Shiradi Ghat for repairs.

All the KSRTC buses from Dharmasthala bound to Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Bengaluru and Hubballi travel on the stretch. A majority of private buses from Mangaluru to Bengaluru also take this route. Basavanna from Channagiri, who was stranded in the Ghat, said that he was returning to his native place after visiting a hospital in Mangaluru. “It was fearful to spend the night amid the forest. Some good-hearted persons gave us food on Tuesday,” he said.

Kottigehara Jaya Karnataka activist Adarsh said that they came to know of road block on Tuesday morning and swung into action. He said that the message was passed on WhatsApp group for collecting food for the stranded passengers. Nagaraj Shirali, Divisional Controller of Puttur KSRTC depot said that some buses were diverted on Monday night itself. The buses towards Bengaluru will take the Sampaje route while those towards north Karnataka will travel via Bajagoli and Chikkamagaluru, he added.

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja visited the spot. Kateel said that it may take at least three days to repair the stretch.