Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jul 10: Hundreds of villagers from Malavoor, Adyapady, Kolambe and Kandavar villages staged a protest on Kenjar-Adyapady Road, blocking the work of the shifting of the engine and other remains of the ill-fated aircraft on Friday July 9, demanding immediate repair of the battered road.

After the Adyapady main road was cut off while extending the runway of the local airport, the 11 km-long Kenjar-Adyapady-Kaikamba Road was built with the assistance of NABARD. The water from the runway drains directly into the gorges leading to the road. After the air crash, heavy vehicles have been moving on the road, destroying culverts, blocking the road, and creating landslides there. Therefore, the villagers said, they have lost patience and hence decided to block the road.

A week back, the villagers had sent a petition to Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, asking for the immediate repair of the road. The workers and Air India officials, who arrived on the spot to carry the remnants of the crashed air craft to their destination near Deccan Park on Friday morning, were taken unawares by the sudden protest. The villagers had blocked the road at 7 am itself. The villagers demanded the presence of the district deputy commissioner and the director of the airport, to see the plight of the road users for themselves.

Mangalore assistant commissioner, Prabhulinga Kavalikatti, visited the spot. The engineers of the public works department have estimated that about ten lac rupees would be required to repair six kms of the damaged road. Kavalikatti assured the villagers that the repairs would be undertaken within a week. Thereafter, the villagers agreed to withdraw their protest.

Memorandums were submitted to the assistant commissioner by zilla panchayat member, Vinod Mada, taluk panchayat member, Shivappa Bangera and Roopesh Kumar, on behalf of the affected villagers.