Parkala road works delays

Parkala road works delays

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, May 29, 2015 :  The narrow road at Parkala here will need time and a delay is seen.  The road of a  500 metre stretch  causes traffic jams during peak hours. This road on the Malpe-Molkalmuru State Highway, has been handed over to the National Highways Department and named as National Highway 169A.

Parkala village is located at the Eastern end of Udupi and comes under the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC). Most of the city buses from Udupi moving towards Manipal have Parkala as their terminus.  Buses and trucks going to Karkala, Hebri, Tirthahalli and Shivamogga use this road, which means that they have to pass through the Parkala bottleneck.

People also visit Manipal for University education  and  medical health purposes and pass through it. Two  vehicles from opposite directions find it difficult  to pass through the narrow stretch. Pedestrians have no way  to walk through this bottleneck.  It is very necessary to widen this road for the benefit of both vehicles and people and avoid  delays and traffic snarls.

Some four years ago, the platinum jubilee celebrations of Udupi CMC, the council made efforts  to widen this Manipal-Parkala Road, which was then part of the Malpe-Molkalmuru State highway. It decided to acquire the land and give compensations. This process took about three years.  When the process was about to be completed, the government handed over the Malpe-Molkalmuru State Highway to the National Highways Department to be upgraded.   About  75 per cent of the process related to acquisition and compensation had been completed. But once the road was handed over to the NH Department, CMC withdrew from it. People are all for the widening of the road.

P. Yuvaraj, CMC president, said that the council would approach Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje and request her to pressure the Centre to expedite the widening of the road.  Starting the process again will take time.  Meanwhile, C. Nataraj, Executive Engineer, National Highways Division, Mangaluru, said that any widening work on Udupi-Tirthahalli National Highway 169A would ned at least six months to commence.