Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)

Bantwal, Apr 22: The people of Kalladka have reasons to celebrate. Their apprehension that Kalladka town might lose its existence due to the widening of the highway has got a reprieve at least for the time being. The department's plans to build underpass on both the sides of the highway at the town have been shelved for now.

The UPA government during its regime had marked 22.5 meters each on both sides of the road for acquisition and widening of the NH 75. The project included construction of highway at a height of 15 feet, underpass at two places leading to Amtoor village and Vittal, and service roads on both sides of the four-lane road. However, there was opposition from the people as 45 shops and houses had to be demolished for it.

As per Google survey one road had to pass through a private high school in Kalladka while as per another survey, fifteen houses needed to be demolished for it.

The district incharge minister B Ramanath Rai who reviewed both the reports has asked the officials to construct the bypass road without disturbing the school, college, houses and agricultural land. He has also asked the officials to conduct survey from Kalladka Narahari town till Dasakodi in order to construct 1.78 km of bypass road and not to
delay the work.

The minister in the presence of deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim on Tuesday April 21 prepared a plan to retain the Kalladka town. The minister asked national highway authority survey executive engineer that the Kalladka Narahari – Dasakodi 1.78 km bypass road should be made to pass on government land as far as possible. He also asked that the road should not pass through the high school and the demolition of houses should be kept to the minimum.

Deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim, national highway authority executive engineer C Nataraj, CGM Reddy, Project director M Fernandes, land acquisition officer Manjunath, zilla panchayat member Chandraprakash Shetty, Bantwal Buda president Pius L Rodrigues, district Congress president B H Khader, Bantwal tahsildar Purandara Hegde, revenue official A P Bhat, Kallada zonal leader Dinesh Shenoy, Thirumaleshwara Bhat, K Padmanabha Rai, B K Idinabba, Mohammed Haneef, Kunhi Ahmed, Stanley, PWD engineer Umesh Bhat and others were present.