Indirect losses due to Illegal mining and transportation

Indirect losses due to Illegal mining and transportation

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, July 29, 2011: The Lokayukta’s report on illegal mining, which refers to the destruction of highways caused by overloaded mining trucks, has been gladly received by the people of Bellay, Hospet, and Sandhur, who have suffered from the ill effects of illegal mining for the past 10 years. The illegal miners have broken all rules to bring more than 3000 overloaded trucks to the New Mangalore Port since 2001.

The badly damaged Hassan to Mangalore stretch on NH 48 had caused a number of accidents in which a number of lives were lost. Economy too suffered because goods could not be transported quickly from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and other parts of Karnataka.

Companies from North India sustained serious financial losses because their vehicles were damaged when transporting goods to Mangalore. The total loss, if calculated, will be an astronomical figure, similar to the figure indicating the loss to the state exchequer, which the Lokayukta has mentioned in its report.

Oil companies have also suffered intensely because their vehicles laden with products such as petrol, high speed diesel, aviation turbine fuel, LPG, and naphtha had to use bad roads to reach places such as Bangalore and Chennai.

Even the KSRTC has reported heavy losses because their buses were forced to move at slow speeds for long hours. A KSRTC official has stated that every vehicle leaving Mangalore and arriving into Mangalore had suspension, gear box, and steering problems and gave 50 percent low mileage. The AC buses suffered the most damages because of their low-ground clearance bodies and sensitive suspension. He expressed hopes that the Lokayukta has taken into consideration all these indirect effects of illegal mining. The KSRTC had to suspend Mangalore to Bangalore bus services through Shirady Ghats for 1 – 2 months every year and divert its Volvo bus service in 2008-09.

The PWD’s state national highway division has also narrated its tales of woe. The division has repaired the Shirady Ghat stretch more than 20 times in 10 years; and in 2008, the entire 37-kilometre stretch had to be closed to traffic for over 10 months for repair. Unfortunately, the roads were in a bad condition in just one more month after these massive repairs because the government permitted mining companies to ply overloaded trucks.

The Lokayukta report has made the Karwar division of the state national highways heave a sigh of relief. One of the division officials says that engineers had a tough time because of overloaded trucks and the politicians named in the Lokayukta report had blamed the engineers for the bad roads. The overloaded trucks had wrecked the highway between Bhatkal and Kumta and Ankola and Karwar, he added.

A number of politicians, including CM B. S. Yeddyurappa, MP D. V. Sadananda Gowda, PWD Minister Udasi, District-in-charge Minister Krishna Palemar, and Coastal Development Authority Chairman B. Nagaraj Shetty had attempted to hide the fact that overloaded mining trucks were responsible for the damage and blamed the monsoons instead. But motorists say that the Shirady Ghat stretch was in excellent condition during the monsoons after iron ore export was banned within the state.

The long-suffering people of the coastal districts now want a report to be compiled on the indirect losses caused by illegal mining so that it can be recovered from the culprits named in the Lokayukta’s report on illegal mining.