The Hindu : Karnataka News : Four-laning of NH 63 sought

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Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Four-laning of NH 63 sought

Correspondent

‘More than 28,000 vehicles cross the highway every day’

‘Use additional Budget funds for upgrading highways’
‘Road condition has worsened due to overloaded trucks’

Sirsi: The North Canara Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, headquartered at Sirsi, has urged Governor Rameshwar Thakur and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to expedite work on converting NH 63 into four lanes.

In a letter addressed to the Governor and the NHAI, Bangalore, a copy of which was released here on Wednesday by Chamber secretary V.S. Sonde, it was demanded that an additional 19 per cent Budget allocation made for national highways development programmes be used on priority for upgrading national highway 63.

There had been no mention in the Budget on completion of the Hubli-Ankola railway line in the near future.

Life line

This would make NH 63 the only life line for goods vehicles in the Hubli-Dharwad, Bellary and North Karnataka hinterland to ports in Uttar Kannada and Mangalore, the letter said. The volume of traffic on NH 63 had increased over the years. More than 28,000 vehicles were crossing the highway every day, Mr. Sonde said. Work on second-stage development of the Karwar port with increased capacity for handling cargo was on the anvil and it was likely to increase the volume of traffic further on this NH 63, the letter said.

The plight of the highway was bad owing to plying of heavily overloaded trucks carrying manganese ore and granites, Mr. Sonde said.

Information sought

The Chamber has urged the Chief Engineer, NHAI, Bangalore, to provide them information on the current status of NH 63 and plans towards widening it.

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