The Hindu : Karnataka News : Makutta road in bad shape

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Sunday, Jan 04, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Makutta road in bad shape

Jeevan Chinnappa

There are only remnants of asphalt on 24-km stretch of the road

Overloaded trucks ply on the road: zilla panchayat member
Government has released Rs. 25 crore to develop the road

Crying for attention: A view of the Makutta road in Kodagu.

MAKUTTA (KODAGU DISTRICT): The Virajpet-Makutta-Kerala inter-State highway, an important road connecting Kodagu with Kerala, is in bad shape.

The road has been in this condition since last three years.

There are only remnants of asphalt on the 24-km stretch of the road from near the Perumbadi lake, where the commercial tax, police and forest check-posts are located, near Virajpet town.

There are lush green forests, interspersed with a few private land, including coffee plantations, on both sides of the road from Perumbadi gate.

Vehicles have to negotiate deep potholes and dangerous turns on the stretch. People living in Virajpet and who go to Kerala regularly have been complaining about the Makutta road condition for long.

At the end of the stretch, near Kootupuzha, there is a signboard put up by the Karnataka Government in 1982 which states that the permissible limit of load for four-axle vehicles plying on the road is 20 tonnes and for two-axle vehicles it is 15 tonnes. But, trucks carry load up to 40 tonnes on this road, said Abdul Latif, Kodagu Zilla Panchayat member, who accompanied the visiting presspersons.

The signboard also states that those violating the rule will be punished with a criminal case registered against them and even cancellation of the licence.

Mr. Latif said that due to objections by the Department of Forests, tree branches protruding to the roads could not be cut. Makutta is a heavy rain bearing area and roads were getting damaged owing to rain. Heavy vehicles moving on this arterial road had further accounted for the damage, he said. Officials concerned had not initiated work on the road in spite of pressuring them, Mr. Latif added.

The Karnataka High Court had to intervene following a public interest litigation petition filed by a trader in Virajpet, asking the authorities here to complete the road repair works within four months. But, more than eight months have passed and still there were no signs of commencement of works, he said.

Raghava, a resident of Kakathodu in Makutta, said the road had remained in such pathetic condition since many years.

Pasha, who was driving his truck from Kannur in Kerala to Hunsur, said, “I take about four hours to cover the 24-km stretch of Makutta road.”

Subhod Kumar Sharma, who works as a VAT Officer in New Delhi and was travelling with his children from Madikeri via Virajpet and Makutta to Kozhikode in Kerala, was shocked at the condition of the road.

The State Government has released Rs. 25 crore to develop the road.

Culverts

The Public Works Department (PWD) has plans to construct 90 culverts on the stretch and provide “filter beds” to prevent depression on the road. It has taken steps to test every 100-m cross section of the road under the CBR (California Bearing Ratio) method to check the soil bearing capacity, based on which the thickness of the road will be determined.

Assistant Executive Engineer of the PWD, Kodagu, Satyanarayana Rao, told The Hindu that global tenders were invited to take up development of the road. Technical bid would be opened on January 8. The commercial bid of the successful technical bidders would be opened on January 15, Mr. Rao said.

The High Court had quashed an application filed by a contractor to whom the work was allotted earlier. Fresh global tenders were invited following directions from the court a month ago. The PWD has submitted an affidavit to the High Court stating that roadworks would be completed by December 2009, Mr. Rao said.

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