In the midst of the #RoadChallenge campaign by Youth Congress leader Mithun Rai exposing the poor highway network in Dakshina Kannada on his Facebook page gaining momentum, the National Highways Authority of India has commenced the pothole filling exercise on National Highway 75 after rainfall subsided.
When The Hindu visited BC Road-Melkar stretch of NH 75, the affected stretches were found to have been filled with bitumen mix even as bitumen mixing process was on near Panemangaluru Junction. Though the potholes and craters have been filled, the road surface has not been made even.
Mr. Rai launched the campaign about 10 days ago following a large number of road users decrying the sorry state of the highways connecting Mangaluru with the other parts of the State.
In his first of the several posts on September 25, Mr. Rai said, “#RoadChallenge, Let’s have this one as well #NitinGadkari. Mangalore is a land of Ports, an education hub, a city of IT companies and mega industries and many more. Mangaluru is the 2nd largest business centre in Karnataka. Around 75% of India’s coffee, timber and cashew nuts exports are handled by the New Mangalore Port. (sic)”
Continuing further, Mr. Rai said that almost all National Highways connecting Mangaluru are in pathetic condition and the city does not deserve to have such roads. Though this was brought to the notice of MP Nalin Kumar Kateel several times, he does not seem to understand and see any of these. He asked people to record videos and take pictures of bad highways and post on social media, #RoadChallenge tagging Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
While four-laning work on NH 75 between BC Road and Addahole in Dakshina Kannada and between Maranahalli and Hassan in Hassan district has almost come to a standstill after four years of beign launched, the existing carriageway was poorly maintained. Thus, says Nitin Keshav Bhandary, a regular traveller, he has not seen the highway in a motorable condition at least for two decades now.