Mangalore: Daijiworld Initiative Yields Success - Officials Rush to Repair Roads
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (MM/SP)
Pics: Prajwal Ukkuda
Mangalore, Jul 9: The officials and the leaders at last, seem to have woken up to the deplorable state of the roads leading from Meramajal to Kuttikala Abbettu village, located about 15 kilometers away from the city. The road linking these two places suffered heavy damages since the beginning of the current monsoon season and all the buses except those being run by KSRTC, stopped plying on this road. This caused further problems, and the lives of the locals here became miserable since the last few weeks.
A Daijiworld initiative, aimed at highlighting the terrible state of roads in and around the city succeeded in having a strong impact, supported by number of feedback comments from its readers worldwide, prompting the authorities to take notice of the worsening situation.
Assistant Commissioner Samir Shukla, MLA U T Khader and Zilla Panchayat executive engineer Narasimharaju, visited the area on Wednesday, July 9. They walked on this road for about three kilometers and realized the dismal situation the locals using this road are in.
A three kilometre stretch of this road has been totally damaged. As a school is also located in this area, the students find it tough to cross the road here, as it has been rendered totally unfit for even walking.
Earlier, buses used to ply on this road every half an hour. But now they have disappeared. Only one private bus continues to move on this stretch of road, bumping into potholes and sliding on the muddy terrain, every morning and evening. Most rickshaw drivers are not willing to risk driving their vehicles on this road either.
The foundation stone for the upgradation of the road was laid during last September by the then rural development minister C M Udasi. The work was to be completed by now, under the Prime Minister's Gram Sadak scheme. But the undue delay in executing the work has been worrying the locals, who attribute the poor condition of the road to this delay.
They claim that the contractors scraped off the asphalt covering of the road two months ago, well aware of the fact that rainy season was closing in. Still they went ahead and converted the tar road into a muddy road, they rue.
The MLA has asked the bus owners to start plying on this road again. But the bus owners have asked for repairing of this road to enable them to press their vehicles into service. Therefore, the emphasis has now been shifted to repairing of the road for the time being. Meanwhile, zilla panchayat executive engineer Narasimharaju assured the MLA and locals of completely repairing the road within a few days.
For making the road motorable and walkable, repair work was initiated to see that the vehicles are able to resume operations on the road to make lives of the villagers that much easier. As a result, the locals here have been heaving a sigh of relief hoping that the repair works would be conducted satisfactorily and their tribulations will end in a few days time.
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