New bus stand and Pumpwell road revisited

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Sep 05, 2016: The MCC council has given approval for upgrading the pending 150-metre asphalt stretch as concrete road at an estimated cost of Rs. 90 lakh. About five months after an uneven road stretch, half concrete and half tar, on Pumpwell-Padil Road at the start of Pumpwell Junction was opened to traffic, the council of the MCC Mangaluru City Corporation has given administrative approval for upgrading the tar stretch as concrete road.

The busy Pumpwell-Padil Road had remained uneven after the corporation upgraded a 150-metre stretch from Pumpwell towards Padil as a concrete road and allowing traffic on it from this April.

A senior engineer at the corporation said that the corporation would try to complete the pending works by December-end by calling short-term bids. The engineer said a culvert on the same stretch would have to be re-built.

A Rs. 45-lakh proposal had been placed before the Standing Committee for Town Planning and Improvement. If the committee delayed giving approval, the works would suffer as the road and culvert works would have to be taken simultaneously. Once the project was completed, the Pumpwell-Padil Road at the mouth of the Pumpwell Junction would be wide. It is expected to ease traffic congestion. The corporation, which had removed a bus shelter while upgrading half the stretch, has not built a new one.

Mayor Harinath told media that after upgrading this stretch, the corporation would take up upgrading the old Kankanady Road abutting Father Muller Hospital. The underground sewage line on the road would have to be replaced first before taking up road works. The corporation would reserve Rs. 90 lakh for replacing the sewage line.

Meanwhile, the council has also given administrative approval for constructing a leachate treatment plant at the corporation’s municipal solid waste compost plant at Pachchanady. It would be built at an estimated cost of Rs. 85 lakh.   The plant was required to prevent untreated leachate flowing to the nearby Basavalingappa Nagara and thus contaminating wells there.

The municipal solid waste transported from the city was being converted as compost at the plant. The  muck flowed while storing the garbage. The new location of the bus stand area too was reviewed.