Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Jul 16: Udupi-Chikmagalur member of parliament D V Sadanand Gowda urged the union government to take urgent steps to convert the stretch of the national highway 17 between Kundapur and Kasargod into four lane one at the earliest, to manage increasing traffic density and for regulating the number of accidents occurring on this stretch, by raising the topic in the Lok Sabha.
In his reply, minister of state in the department of road transport, R P N Singh, informed that an action plan with an outlay of Rs 922 crore to convert this stretch of 131 kms into four-lane road, is already in place. Out of this, work on the 17.3 kms stretch between Suratkal and Mangalore is in progress, which will be completed by December this year. For the remaining stretch, bids have already been collected from the interested contractors, he revealed.
For the part of the highway between Dakshina Kannada border and Kasargod, project report is under preparation. The entire project is planned to be executed before December 2013. With the cooperation of both Kerala and Karnataka, efforts would be made to complete the road development works at the earliest, Singh explained, in reply to questions raised by Sadanand Gowda.