UDUPI: Work on the four-lane Kadiyali-Parkala road will be completed by May 2021. Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Member of Parliament Shobha Karandlaje secured a grant of Rs 99.86 crore for the project.
After completion of the tender process, work on the project started in December 2018. Even as the process of land acquisition in Parkala was nearing completion, the pandemic ensued and all works ground to a halt, MLA K Raghupathi Bhat said.
Noting that the work got delayed due to land acquisition issues, Bhat, in a press communique on Thursday, said all this will be cleared shortly and work will be completed as stated above. A meeting of NH officials and land owners was held in February, this year, at B M School in Parkala wherein they were asked to give their land for the project. The land owners agreed to do so, only after they received the compensation amount, Bhat said.
The ‘3D’ notification should have been completed in one year. However, this was not possible due to the pandemic, he said. Now, the ‘3A’ notification process has been initiated again. NH officials have agreed to complete the ‘3A’ land acquisition process by January 15, 2021. Steps have been taken to provide maximum possible compensation to the land owners. The work will start after the compensation amount is handed over to the owners, he noted.
If the land owners come forward to part with their land forthwith and agree to collect the compensation later, the work can be expedited, the MLA said, and sought cooperation from them. The clarification comes in wake of criticism by Congress leaders who questioned the delay. Bhat said the then Congress government upgraded the road to a NH without ascertaining the pros and cons of the move and without ascertaining its feasibility.
Reminding the opposition that it was the BJP government that sanctioned funds, Bhat said the centre has also released Rs 91 crore for the Aadi Udupi-Malpe four-lane road project. Udupi CMC then ruled by the BJP had also set aside Rs 3 crore for land acquisition process in Parkala. The Congress during its term did not develop even a single road into a four-lane facility and contended itself by asphalting existing two lane roads, Bhat noted.