Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jul 14 : After a bullet tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas dangerously leaned to one side while negotiating a sharp curve on Shiradi ghat section of the national highway No.48, famously known as double turn, traffic on this section of the highway came to a griding halt in the wee hours on Sunday. As a result, vehicles using the road lined up on both sides of the road for several kilometres.

By Sunday afternoon, policemen from Sakleshpur and Marnalli arrived and paved way for traffic from one side of the road. The vehicles plying between Bangalore and Mangalore were held up for over Nine hours there.

The Shiradi ghat road is reverting back to situation faced in the past, when road blocks occured routinely. The present problem arises out of the fact that no restrictions have been enforced for the movement of heavy vehicles, increasing number of trucks particularly those carrying ore and poor quality of the road works. It may be recalled, that bullet tankers were barred from moving on this segment of the road at night last year, as they were found to be involved in road blocks most of the time.