MANGALURU:Much ahead of its scheduled reopening, after it was closed for concretising in the second phase, the Shiradi Ghat road was thrown open for traffic by State Public Works Department Minister H D Revanna on Sunday.
The minister arrived around 1 pm from Sakleshpur and reached Kempholle where a small puja was performed. State Urban Development Minister, U T Khader, Mangaluru MP, Nalin Kumar Kateel and Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner, Sasikanth Senthil received the minister at Kempholle before the ceremony.
U T Khader said the locals had supported the early completion of the work. “Not just people of Dakshina Kannada but travellers from Goa and the rest of Karnataka had waited eagerly for the completion of the Ghat works since the arterial Bengaluru-Mangaluru road connects important places like Dharmasthala,” he said.
Kateel pointed out that roads in Dakshina Kannada district that receives high rainfall in the state, suffer extensive damage and they include PWD roads too. He urged a package for the district from the PWD minister during his address.
PWD Minister H D Revanna said that there are four Ghat sections like Agumbe, Charmadi, Shiradi and Madikeri that connect Mangaluru with the rest of state. He said he had inspected all the four Ghat sections earlier and instructed officials to take out necessary repair works. Four-lane work is under way between Bengaluru and Mangaluru, of which works between Bengaluru and Hassan are complete and the Hassan-BC road is being prepared. NHAI contractors are given two years to complete the works.
NHAI pulled up for poor works
With PWD NH completing Ghat works well-ahead of the deadline, the National Highway Authority of India cut a sorry figure during the function held for the inauguration of Shiradi Ghat. District Incharge Minister, U T Khader commented that there was lot of respect and reputation on NHAI officials and it has suffered a setback due to their poor works in National Highway 66 at Pumpwell and Thokkottu where the works are dragging for eight years. Former Minister, Ramanath Rai also seconded the thought urging MP Nalin Kumar Kateel to urge central government in this regard.
Cars pile up before inauguration
As it was announced Shiradi Ghats would be thrown open on Sunday, vehicles started gathering up at Gundya with road users eagerly waiting to undertake the journey in newly inaugurated Ghat section. By the time, the road was thrown open at 3pm, there was a huge pile up of vehicles waiting for their turn from BC Road side as well as from Kukke Subramanya side. The stage which was set at Gundya at one side of the road added up the woes as vehicles had to be regulated only through one side of the road.
About Shiradi Ghat
Situated at National Highway 75, Shiradi Ghat receives 5,000mm to 6,000mm rainfall per annum, which damages roads
As a permanent solution, it was decided to concretise the 26km stretch in two phases
In first phase, the 250km stretch from Maranahalli to Kempholle was taken up for concreting in January 2015 and completed on August 2015
Second phase of work on 263km from Kempholle to Addaholle was taken up for concretisation at a cost of D74 crore
Technology used
New technology of Rigid Pavement technique was sourced from IIT Kharagpur
200 GSM layer of geotextile was used under concrete to prevent concrete softening with mud
To cope with heavy rains and allow draining of water, Granular Sub Base for the thickness of 150 mm used in the concretisation
Dry Lean Concrete technology (DLC) of 150 mm thickness