The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) resumed work on the pedestrian underpass at Kirimanjeshwara village in Udupi taluk on Monday with police protection nearly two years after work came to a halt on the orders of the district administration.
A part of four-laning National Highway 66 between Kundapur and Goa Border, the underpass provided safe passage to residents and students of the village by avoiding the bustling highway. However, the then Udupi Deputy Commissioner T. Venkatesh had in September 2016 directed the authority either to relocate the underpass or provide a U turn at the location acting on complaints of some residents who said that the structure would affect them.
On appeal by residents and NHAI, Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis obtained a report from a technical expert on the feasibility of the project and decided that the underpass should be built as proposed as it was located close to schools, places of worship and prayer and residences. Her go-ahead for the work perhaps got delayed due to elections to the Assembly.
On Monday, men and machinery from concessionaire IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd. were deployed to continue work as planned after the district administration extended police security to avert any protests or clashes, residents of the village said.
Public convenience
NHAI Project Director (Mangaluru) Z. Samson Vijay Kumar told The Hindu that the district administration’s facilitation prevented wastage of public money as otherwise the authority had to raze the already built portion of the underpass and compensate the contractor. The present location was chosen after much study for the safety of general public. The incomplete underpass had become a bottleneck in the four-laning work and with Monday’s re-start, the project would get fast-forwarded, he said.
Byndoor Tahsildar Kiran Gowraiah told The Hindu that the administration had to support the work as already there was delay of about three years. Pedestrian/vehicle underpasses at other places in the taluk are already completed, he noted.
The IRB is executing the four-lane work at an estimated cost of ₹ 1,790 crore on build, finance, operate and tranfer basis since 2014.