Close on the heels of cracks being formed on Madikeri-Mangaluru highway at Katakeri following the downpour in Kodagu (Coorg) in Karnataka in the last couple of days, loose mud on Friday begun giving way from the hillock behind the old private bus-stand at Madikeri (file picture) which was damaged in last year’s landslides that rocked the popular tourist destination.
Though the bus-stand was damaged in last August, the authorities, including the City Municipal Council (CMC) of Madikeri had delayed the construction of the retaining wall to prevent further sliding of the hillock. It was only last month work had begun to build the retaining wall. The delay is proving costly because there are chances of landslips if the rain intensifies in the coming weeks.
The CMC and the government have decided to build a tourist spot in the area to be named as ‘Madikeri Square’.
Meanwhile, cracks have developed on Madikeri-Mangaluru Road at Katakeri near Madikeri. The authorities had carried out ‘patch work’ repair on the highway damaged during last year’s landslides. Instead of repairing the roads by building retaining walls and other civil works, the government agencies had placed sandbags to prop up the roads.
Last year, landslides had occurred on 25 locations on Sampaje Ghat. Stretches of roads were washed away due to flash floods on four locations including Jodupala, Madenadu and Monnangeri.
The authorities had carried out temporary repairs to facilitate movement of vehicles, instead of building new road.
There is fear among residents that once the rains intensify, there could be further damages to the road infrastructure which has been rendered weak by last year’s floods in Kodagu.
Shocking news for a guy like me residing in Delhi… Wonder as to what this so-called MP Pratap Simha has been doing… Probably relishing the subsidised fare at the Parliament canteen….
He is an MP who during his earlier tenure never cared to respond to repeated calls from journalists with his staff eternally replying with the same words: MP sanebru constituency alli iddare…. Yes, even the mobile calls were futile…
Unfortunately we have corrupt politicians milk calamities. We also have third class engineers manning our public works dept who do not have the requisite knowledge and skills and become corrupt. It is a disgrace that after the last years deluge our State Govt did not complete the restoration works. Why this unsupported hill side was not attended to earlier and is being done during rains needs to be explained. The basic principle is not to carry out long term repairs on roads during the monsoons.
Our CM has the time to visit 40 temples to pray that he remains in power but no time to inspect and follow up badly affected areas. His brother, the PWD Minister, remains absent and silent.
I cannot understand why our CM did not take the Centre’s offer to send in the Border Roads Organisation to carry out the repairs. This organisation (in which I proudly served for 4 years to widen the Jammu-Srinagar highway in the late sixties) is famous as one of the best in the world for its vast experience in constructing and maintaining mountainous roads in the Himalayas and in the far Eastern States since 1961.
We have a political imbecile who is pushing the construction of the railway line across Kodagu which will make it an ecological disaster. Is he a stooge of the timber mafia?
God help us!!!