Daijiworld Media Network - Brahmavar (HB/SP)

Brahmavar, Jan 5: Widening of the road between the town and Cherkady is very much needed and the people were waiting for their demand to turn this road into four lane one to be realized. Now, permission has been given to remove the trees standing on either side of the road, and cutting down of the trees is progressing at a fast pace.

When cutting the trees, vehicular traffic is bound to suffer. With the support of police personnel, arrangements have been made to allow smooth flow of traffic. With the hard work and determined effort put in by Udupi MLA K Raghupati Bhat, the road is being widened.

In the first phase, permission has been given to uproot 1,014 trees. The work of removing the trees on the seven kilometre length of the road is progressing at a brisk pace. In the second phase, about 500 more trees will possibly be cut down.

A sum of Rs 28 crore has already been sanctioned by the government for the widening of this road. The MLA said that initially road work from Brahmavar to Kunjalu will begin immediately. Concrete road has already been built near the railway bridge.

A number of locals and environmentalists had, during the last year, raised objections to the decision to uproot over a thousand trees. On account of this protest, the work got delayed by a year. The felling of trees has been given on contract basis through tender for Rs 14 lac.

Brahmavar, which has become a taluk recently, is growing fast, and it needs wide roads. There is heavy traffic between Brahmavar and Petri and every day, traffic bottlenecks have become a common phenomenon in the morning and the evening. Petri road is a connecting road to several other villages and towns. In addition to private buses, hundreds of school buses take to this road every day.