The busy stretch on National Highway 275 connecting Madikeri and Sampaje that reported landslips in June this year is expected to get retaining walls at 22 places to ensure smooth movement of traffic on the highway linking Mangaluru without any disruptions because of caving of the earth during rains.
In addition to 59 retaining walls whose work was in progress, it has been resolved to construct 22 more walls to give stability along the stretch and ensure that traffic remains unaffected during monsoon. This will keep the road motorable with slope stabilisation.
MP for Mysuru-Kodagu Pratap Simha, who led a team of elected representatives and senior engineers from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for an inspection of the stretch, said the NHAI was building retaining walls at a cost of ₹59 crore at several places on the 28-km long stretch based on the data on landslips reported in previous years.
However, landslips were again reported in places other than those where the retaining walls are being constructed. The stretch reported slides in at least five places during heavy rains in June this year.
Kodagu’s elected representatives want a permanent solution to the recurring problem in monsoon as the people are largely dependent on Mangaluru, especially for healthcare, and the highway has been the key link. In this connection, an inspection was done along with NHAI chief engineer Vijay Kumar to explore the possibility of building more retaining walls for strengthening the carriageway, the MP said.
Mr. Simha said the second stage of works on the stretch may begin in December, once the monsoon is over, as the engineers have to prepare estimates and designs. The additional retaining walls may take at least one year to complete and the approximate cost could be around ₹100 crore, he added.
Hitting traffic
During previous monsoons, landslips had disrupted traffic on the highway stretch and travellers were put to inconvenience since they had to take a detour to reach Sampaje from Madikeri for proceeding towards Mangaluru and other coastal areas.
The people of Kodagu have been facing this problem for the last two years and therefore a permanent solution was sought from the NHAI, said former Speaker and MLA K.G. Bopaiah. “If more retaining walls are built in addition to those already being constructed by the NHAI, there won’t be any more incidents of landslip that could cause disruption of traffic on the highway whenever heavy rains lash the region,” he said.
The NHAI’s Vijay Kumar said the stretch has been reviewed and places that need to be strengthened identified. The existing work is expected to be completed soon and the new work may be taken up either this year or early next year after technical certification of the newly identified work areas.