Shabby Work of the Contractor/Workers has Rs 14 Cr Court Road in Shambles?
Mangaluru: Even though the former MLA J R Lobo during interaction with media in the month of January 2018 had assured that the Court Road in the City will be completed by February 2018- but looking at the present condition of the road work you’ll be surprised to notice the pathetic situation, which is in shambles. The widening of this district Court Road was a long-pending demand being undertaken at a cost of Rs 14 crore, since earlier this precarious road was a nightmare to the motoring legal fraternity and litigants since it was narrow and unsafe at certain spots. As pert plans this nearly two-hundred meters long road with width of 12 meters was suppose have footpath and drains for rain water- but by looking at the progress of the work done till now, it seems like the tax payers money has gone down the drain.
There were several reasons for the delay is starting this road work- like this court road which was surrounded by many trees had many objections from St Aloysius Institution management and students, and also other citizens/environmentalists on cutting down these trees in order to make way for road widening- so their protests had forced the government/MCC and other local representatives to take steps to protect these and more trees by using a latest technology. And this technology is named as “Soil Nailing Technology” which was approved by State Government and Mangaluru City Corporation- and a consultant from Bengaluru was assigned to undertake this project.
When that issue was taken care of- there was yet another problem- there were delays by the consultant who never showed up at the site for months- and this delayed the work since the contractors had no chance to further continue the work in the absence of the consultant-thereby delaying the work. Apart from this, a few of the City engineers did admit that the project was not well planned. How nice? Former MCC corporator Ranganath Kini speaking to Team Mangalorean once said, ” Putting the blame on each other will not solve the problem. There is absolutely no need of delaying the work for technical reasons. The priority is the completion of the road, which is important now. Blocking the road for several months clearly shows the inability of the administration- and since this project is related to connecting road to district court complex, it should have been completed even before the scheduled time. Presently no one knows when this road will be completed”
It was learnt earlier as per MCC Corporator of Court Ward, A C Vinayaraj, that the work delay was due to problem between the consultant as well as the contractors. But once this road is completed it will be one of the best one in the City by protecting the nature as well as geographical structure- and this hilly region is an aesthetic property of the City. There are plans to add e-toilets in the Court Ward, and since this Ward is urban in nature, commuters from various destinations should get get a best way to attend a nature’s call, as said by the Corporator.
Anyways, well said by the Corporator, but even though the work had started few months ago, and there was a stoppage of work due to election code of conduct- but looking at the slow pace and the shabby work, nobody knows as to when the Court Road will be ready to use-Ask any of the MCC officials or the contractor about the progress of this road, chances are that you’ll never get the right answer. And due to the recent heavy rains, most part of the concrete work of this road has been washed away- and at some spots under layer is completely destroyed in the recent rains. Also the muddy side walls have collapsed, and chances are that there will be more mus slides. Even couple of electric poles are on the verge of falling.
Also with an Industrial Training Institute located adjacent to this road, it is really safety hazard to the students moving around in the campus, when you have all these loose mud walls, which may collapse anytime and do harm to these students. Has anyone from the MCC noticed this? I bet not- they only wake up when accidents happen-however, taking necessary precautions from accidents not happening is not in their blood. In spite of many trees fallen and also mudslides on this Court road, there has been no action taken in preventing trees falling and side walls collapsing in future. Oh well!
Even though couple of years have passed since this road work was planned- and as of now, there is no proper date when this road might be put into use- and by looking at the present condition- bet it will be a while? Until, then motorists and commuters experience all the inconveniences by taking alternate paths to reach your destination-either the court complex or the St Aloysius College or Chapel.
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I have an advise to those who are opposing cutting down of trees to broaden the road to go and live in jungles where there are plenty of roads and nobody will cut down trees there. Mangalore is a city and not a jungle and in a city if trees come in the way of broadening road or improving it they should be cut down
because they not only hamper traffic movement but also pose risk to the pedestrians.