BENGALURU: With the rain letting up and flood water receding in most of the affected parts, a mammoth task lies ahead of the BS Yediyurappa Government which is yet to get a cabinet of ministers.
The heavy rain and flooding over the last week has caused extensive damage to roads and bridges in 21 of the 30 districts in the state, cutting off connectivity between many towns and villages. Restoring road links will now be an onerous for the administration.
Public Works Department (PWD) Secretary Guruprasad said, it is too early to estimate the full extent of damage. “However, preliminary survey by our officials has revealed that 16,400 km of National Highways, State Highways and major district roads have been damaged in the 21 districts. Of this, 2,400 km of roads have been completely washed away and need to be rebuilt. The remaining 14,000 km roads have witnessed severe damage.”
This apart, over 500 bridges and culverts are also damaged and vehicles cannot move on 253 of the bridges. “At these places, villages are cut off. Locals have to take alternative routes to reach their place, which would be 20-50 km more, causing inconvenience. Our officials are trying to restore links using wet mix of crushed stones. This is just a temporary measure so that vehicles can move,’’ Guruprasad said.
Similarly, broken bridges are being temporarily fixed using sand bags.
The department needs at least Rs 1,500 crore to make temporary arrangements for mobility. “At many places, the water level is yet to reduce. At such places, we cannot assess the damage yet. For a complete assessment of the exact loss, it may take a few more days. We will need huge funds to rebuild the infrastructure,” Guruprasad said.
The state has witnessed one of the worst floods this year, affecting districts in North Karnataka, coastal, Malnad and some parts of south-interior Karnataka.As on Tuesday, the death toll was 54, while 15 people were still missing. As many as 6.77 lakh people have been evacuated in 100 taluks. According to the disaster management wing of the Revenue Department, 2,217 villages are affected.
While the coastal region received an average of 559 mm rainfall, as against a normal of 202 mm, between August 7 and 13, Malnad region received an average of 500 mm as against 98 mm in the same period.
Rural roads too
Repairing village roads could turn out to be a task. There are 1.75 lakh km of rural roads of which around one lakh km of roads may be damaged. RDPR Principal Secretary L K Ateeq said the challenge will be in raising resources.
New bridge, road gets swept away
Khanapur: Putting a question mark on the quality of government works, a road and bridge built about six months ago at a cost of `4.5 crore were washed away in heavy rains and floods at Khanapur in Belagavi district recently.