GULBARGA: To travel on the Gulbarga-Hosur road covering 98 km passing through Deval Gangapur and Afsalpur towns, is an experience in itself.

It takes five hours to complete the journey. Although the district is known for its bad roads, the Gulbarga-Hosur stretch has remained notorious for years. When the road was included in the second phase of the private management of the State highways two years ago, there was a sigh of relief among the road users. But their happiness was short lived and the contractor, who was awarded the work of filling the potholes and re-carpeting the road at a cost of Rs. 3 crore, has not done anything.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy would be taking this road from Hire Mannur village to Gulbarga on Wednesday during his visit to the flood-hit villages on the banks of the Bhima in Afsalpur Taluk. Perhaps, he will get a first hand experience of the sufferings of the road users during the journey. The Government, while deciding to include the Gulbarga-Hosur road under the private management of the state highways, had entrusted the work to Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL), which handed over the responsibility of monitoring the maintenance of the road by a private contractor to the Public Works Department.

According to sources, warnings and notices to the private contractor have not worked. The issue came up for discussions at all review meetings and warnings issued by the district in-charge ministers have gone unheeded.

Members of the Afsalpur unit of the Janata Dal (Secular) locked up the offices of the Public Works Department in Gulbarga in protest against the bad condition of the Gulbarga-Hosur Road two months ago. They demanded the government to rescind the contract and hand over the work to another agency or execute it through government agencies.

Following the pressure, the Public Works Department finally recommended to the KRDCL and the Government to rescind the contract. KRDCL had recommended to the Government to rescind the contract, but the State Government is yet to act on it.

The private contractor, except for tackling about 10 to 20 km of the road length, had not filled the potholes.

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