Mangaluru MP should have the Capacity to complete NH Work on Time – Ramanath Rai
Mangaluru: The motorists and the public are facing severe problems since the work of Four-laning the National Highway 75 stretch from Addahole to BC Road has been stopped said former Minister B Ramanath Rai.
He was speaking at a press meet held at the District Congress office Mangaluru on Monday, November 27. The work was sanctioned by the previous UPA government and handed over to the National Highway Authority of India. The contract for the highway work has been given to Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T). The forest department has given the approval to fell the roadside trees. The work of the road was expected to complete within 30 months. The road work was started in 2017 and now the contractor company has stopped the work because of loss.
While the contractors were expected to complete the work within two years, the work did not progress at the estimated pace since the beginning. While the tree and earth cutting works were done to some extent by L&T, a little of the earth-cutting work was done by Isolux. At present, work by both contractors has come to a halt. The incomplete work is causing inconvenience to the users of the stretch from B C Road to Addahole. As per the information the NHAI has kept the payment of the contractor pending. The NHAI should clear the bills immediately. The elected representatives of the union government including local Member of Parliament are least bothered in this issue. The union government should take the issue seriously and start the stopped work immediately, he demanded.
The other National Highway works in the district including Pumpwell and Moodbidri Highway are also moving at a slow pace. The Local MP is blaming state government for the slow work. The people of DK district are very intelligent and they know who is lying. As a peoples representative to the Union government, he should not make false allegations against the state government. He should work to complete the work as early as possible. During the Siddaramaiah tenure, our government constructed a number of roads in rural areas within the deadline. In the same way, the MP should show his leadership in completing the NH work on time, he said.
Congress leaders Mithun Rai, Mamata Gatti, Harish Rai, Kodichal Ibrahim and others were present.