Madikeri-Mangaluru road prone to landslides awaits permanent relief work since 2018 monsoon
MADIKERI: Nearly a year after the Detailed Project Report for permanent relief work on NH275 near Madikeri was forwarded to the National Highway Authority and the centre, it has still not received approval even as earth movers will soon take over the landslide-prone Madikeri-Mangaluru road to safeguard it during the monsoon.
The Mangaluru-Madikeri National Highway has been prone to landslides since the monsoons of 2018 and the highway falls at a risk of closure every monsoon season.
Every rainy season, the highway gets wrapped in sandbags and temporary relief works take shape once the rains recede.
An area on the highway that reported a landslide in 2018 is still witnessing relief work even as this spot has now become a tourist viewpoint, also posing a risk to many.
In the past five years, apart from the numerous temporary relief works under the rain damage fund, the highway was sanctioned with Rs 48 crore funds for the construction of retaining walls in vulnerable stretches across 1700 meters on the road and for the installation of an improved drainage system.
While one of the retaining walls is still being constructed, the other works have been completed but have not been maintained properly. The drainage across the highway is deposited with silt and is growing weeds, which might render it useless during the monsoon.
Further, apart from the 1700 meters, there are several vulnerable areas on the highway that await permanent solutions.
“Rs 98 crore DPR is waiting for approval and this will extend a permanent solution to the landslide problem on the highway. Like every monsoon, the earth movers will be deployed with workers at vulnerable spots on the highway to clear the debris of landslides then and there, if a situation arises,” confirmed Jagadish Rai, a contractor who is in charge of the work on the highway.