MANGALURU: The connectivity between Mangaluru and Madikeri town appears to take long as Sampaje the arterial ghat section connecting Mangaluru with Madikeri town has suffered multiple landslides and engineers are finding it difficult to approach the section to assess the damage with incessant rains. It is speculated that it may take at least a month for the normalcy to return in this stretch.
Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner, Sasikanth Senthil opined that landslides are pretty bad in the ghat section. The Army has reached the section from Kodagu side and NDRF teams have reached the side of Dakshina Kannada district. The army and NDRF are assessing the situation but the stretch is dicey till rains recede, he mentioned.
Superintending Engineer of National Highways PWD, Kantharaju said that the engineers are able to reach till the first landslide spot as the road is closed. Landslides have occured at least four places. “It will be very difficult to assess it without rains coming down.
All the efforts would be expedited to clear the landslides and commence the traffic again”, he said. With repeated landslides, it will be herculean task to clear the ghat for traffic in short duration, officials opined. With Sampaje, Shiradi sections are closed Charmadi ghat is the only section which is open to connect Mangaluru with Bengaluru.
Even on Friday, a container truck has broken down at the 10th curve of Charmadi limiting the movement to just one side of the road. After the incident, all the heavy vehicles like multi-axle trucks, containers, tankers are banned in Charmadi ghat till further notice.
