Mangaluru: PWD Minister, H D Revanna believes building a retaining wall could provide a permanent solution to the problem of landslides in rain in the Charmadi ghats. Several people were left stranded for over 12 hours in the ghat section owing to the landslides last week. NH 234 ,which runs through Charmadi ghat, connects Chikkamagaluru with Dakshina Kannada district and with the Shiradi Ghat road closed for repairs, the traffic on this road has increased.
Mr Revanna, who inspected the roads in the ghat section and held a review meeting with the officials concerned, suggested the idea of a retaining wall to prevent the landslides and also asked the National Highway officials to place earthmovers on both sides of the ghat section as an immediate solution.
Deputy Commissioner, Sasikanth Senthil, however told the minister that it was important to have proper rain water drains along the ghat road to prevent landslides. When the district administrations of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada complained about the slow pace of work on the National Highway during the monsoon, Mr Revanna instructed the PWD secretary to hold a meeting with NHAI officials within a week to solve the problem.
He informed the meeting that efforts were being made to open the Shiradi Ghat, the main link between Mangaluru and Bengaluru, for traffic in the first week of July and explained that the last phase of the work had been delayed due to rain. The work on a bridge was in the process of being completed, he added .
