Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Jan 4: Traffic on highway 17 stretch between Udyavar and Uchchila in the district turned to be a painful experience for the motorists on Monday January 3, as a huge truck moving to Mangalore disrupted movement of other vehicles. The problem was compounded because of the fact that highway widening work that is going on this stretch has already narrowed down the space available for vehicular movement.

As the truck carrying heavy machinery, which crossed Udupi on Monday morning, covered almost the entire width of the national highway, the other vehicles had no way to move about or overtake it. This truck took about three and half hours to cover the short distance of a few kilometres between Udyavar and Uchchila. The buses found it hard to keep up to their time schedules, while two wheeler riders and rickshaws were the worst hit.

As the policemen are busy with other things like Hindu Samajotsava and   zilla and taluk panchayat elections, they did not take any steps to regulate traffic during this period, which came in for utter criticism from the people.