Kundapur-Surathkal highway may lose NH fund

Kundapur-Surathkal highway may lose NH fund

Mangalore Today News

Mangalore Feb 13: As the centers warn about stop funding to several National highway projects unless the state government complete the task of land acquisition for pending road schemes, Karnataka may loose several National highway projects.

 

The union Minister of Road Transport and Highways has already told the Karnataka government to speed up the function of land acquisition. But the state administration is yet to take over the project relating to a total of 1,706 hectare pertaining to nine major road projects. Due to delay in land acquisition no progress has been made on the cleared nine major project long back.

The projects facing land acquisition hurdles in the State include the Belgaum-Goa border, Hungund-Hospet, Bijapur-Hungund, Tumkur-Chitradurga, Dhaward-Belgaum, Devanahalli-Hassan, Mulbagal-Aandhra Pradesh border, Hyderabad-Bangalore and Kundapur-Suratkal.

The pending projects notwithstanding, the Centre has sanctioned 890 km of new highways for Karnataka. The proposed highways in Tumkur to Honnavar (348 km), Mangalore-Belthangadi-Mudigere-Janapura-Belur (149 km), Madhugiri-Andhra Border (165 km) would be World Bank-funded.

Under the Centre’s budgetary provisions, roads selected for construction include Maharashtra border -Bijapur (41 km), Belur-Banavara (45 km), Banavara-Bannur-Huliyar (48 km), Huliyar-Sira (46 km) and Sira-Madhugiri (53 km).

“The Centre cleared all the nine major projects long back but no progress has been made due to delay in land acquisition” a senior Ministry official. Karnataka is one of eight states to which the ministry has shot off letters to hasten the process.

Ministry sources said that unless the State government took concrete steps to acquire land for the long-pending highway projects, the Centre would block all proposed schemes, an issue that was conveyed to Karnataka officials at a recent meeting of of Public Works Department Ministers chaired by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath. State PWD Minister C M Udasi attended the meeting.

“Due to non-availability of land, the highway projects are getting delayed in several states, including Karnataka. This is forcing us to withdraw projects from these states and giving priority to those performing well”, Kamal Nath said.

Courtesy- Deccan Herald