Rs 12.8 lakh spent to dig up Rs 4.5 cr concretised road

Mangaluru: The concretisation of the Kankanady Junction Road (Father Muller Hospital) to Koti Chennayya Circle (Nandigudda) was taken up at a cost of Rs 4.5 crore. Locals are fuming as road cutting works have become the order of the day, even after concretisation. The Mangaluru City Corporation had promised to develop this road into a model one.
An RTI petition by A Rajaram, a senior citizen, revealed that the MCC, after the concretisation of the road, has spent Rs 12.8 lakh for road cutting at 20 places on this stretch. Rajaram told TOI, “After I received the RTI reply in November last year, I have noticed the road cutting has taken place in three more places with six holes. So much money is being wasted due to lack of planning by engineers. This is happening on a road that is just 1.4km in length. Frequent cutting will have an impact on the strength of the road, and the wear and tear on vehicles will be high. Before starting concretisation of any road, it is important to shift the utilities like electricity, water pipelines and underground drainage, which has not happened. So, whenever there is a leak, road cutting is being undertaken. I don’t think this practice of road cutting is followed anywhere else in India,” he said.
Currently road cutting works are in progress at three places. When contacted, an official from the engineering section of the MCC, said, the main water supply line passes through the centre of this road. When the road was concretised, the water pipeline was not shifted due to a lack of funds. Since the pipeline is old, leaks are bound to develop, and the only solution is to repair the same.”
In 2013, environmental activists had opposed cutting down of trees for road widening on this stretch, and had launched an online campaign called, ‘Save the last boulevard of Mangaluru’.