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When the Southwest Monsoon deed the Karnataka seashore connected Friday, determination were reports of roads getting flooded and damaged crossed Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.
Rainwater flowed connected roads and formed puddles arsenic determination was nary flight way to the enarthrosis drains. The continued h2o accumulation would yet harm the roadworthy surface, creating potholes and craters.
For instance, potholes and craters connected the Mulki-Moodbidri-Belthangady State Highway 70 adjacent Kallabettu successful Moodabidri were fixed successful March-April. However, the precise aforesaid determination had h2o puddles connected Friday arsenic the nationalist works section (PWD) failed to reconstruct transverse drains to drain the rainwater from the roadworthy aboveground to the enarthrosis drains.
Similar was the lawsuit astatine Sunkadakatte connected Surathkal-Bajpe-Panemangaluru SH 101 adjacent Bajpe, arsenic good arsenic Mangaluru-Athradi SH 67 astatine Bajpe. The vegetation connected the roadworthy flanks, too, was not cleared, aggravating the concern and inconveniencing roadworthy users.
Lack of maintenance
Part of Surathkal-Panemangaluru State Highway 101 via Bajpe and Gurupura submerged successful rainwater connected the archetypal time of the monsoon play itself, connected Friday astatine Sunkadakatte adjacent Bajpe successful Dakshina Kannada district. | Photo Credit: ANIL KUMAR SASTRY
This improvement speaks volumes astir the deficiency of roadworthy infrastructure attraction by the nationalist works department, civic agencies, and the National Highways Authority of India, regretted a retired elder PWD engineer. In fact, the agencies person astir forgotten the 3 types of attraction — pre-monsoon, during-monsoon, and post-monsoon. Neither was determination immoderate regular attraction of bridges on SHs and large territory roads (MDRs), helium said.
There has been nary large-scale departure successful the yearly mean rainfall successful the 2 districts implicit the past fewer years to assertion that excessive rainfall has damaged the roadworthy infrastructure. It varied positive oregon minus 10-15% to the yearly mean of 4,006 mm successful Dakshina Kannada and 4,535 mm successful Udupi district, helium noted.
The gangmen concept
Flooding seen connected the archetypal time of monsoon play connected the Mangaluru-Athradi State Highway 67 via Bajpe and Kateel connected Friday astatine Bajpe successful Dakshina Kannada district. | Photo Credit: ANIL KUMAR SASTRY
Until astir 2010, “gangs” of ‘D’ radical employees of the PWD moving nether the respective inferior oregon adjunct engineers utilized to acceptable retired with hoes and sickles each morning. Each subordinate was allotted a circumstantial magnitude of a road, either MDR oregon SH, and it was his work to support enarthrosis drains, wide vegetation, and capable insignificant potholes.
The department, however, discontinued the strategy and alternatively entrusted roadworthy attraction to the contractor who had relaid/repaired the peculiar stretch. The retired elder technologist said that the contractor was hardly undertaking regular attraction works.
Being maintained
Yet, PWD engineers successful the 2 districts claimed that contractors acrophobic were maintaining roads arsenic per specifications, and determination was nary funds crunch for the maintenance. There could beryllium insignificant lapses; however, they were being attended connected a case-by-case ground whenever artificial flooding was reported, they maintained.
