MANGALURU: “Do elected representatives ever travel on the Shirady Ghats?” a middle-aged member in a group of Mangaluru-bound travellers asked a roadside tea vendor near Gundya gate on NH-75.
Seeming to know the truth, the travellers did not wait for the vendor’s response. Sipping hot tea and looking at their dust-coated vehicles, parked near the tea shop, the members regretted at having made the road trip in order to attend a wedding. Getting into their vehicles, they hoped to reach Mangaluru before nightfall, to ensure a good rest for their aching bones, which were rattled by the bad roads on the Shirady Ghats.
“Every driver stopping the vehicle near my shop poses the same question in exasperation,” says vendor Girish. Due to an inordinate delay in implementation of the second phase of concretisation (contract was awarded in 2015), the 30 km stretch from Kemphole up to Gundya gate has completely deteriorated.
“The stretch from Kemphole to Addahole (12.38 km), has become unmotorable,” many travellers vouched. A reality check by Express vindicated the observation of travellers. The stretch has many potholes, which are every drivers’ nightmare.
To compound woes, the parapet wall, retaining wall and crash barriers went missing at many steep curves. Due to the pathetic condition of the road, the travel time to cover Shirady Ghats, a 30 km stretch, which used to take less than 45 minutes, now takes 90 minutes.