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Shirady Ghat damaged again!

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mcadambi - 29 July, 2008 | Mangalore | Bus | Mangalore | Shirady Ghat | Everything else

We never seem to learn.... Shirday ghat is back to square one.

Neither the Bus Lobby want Trains to Mangalore nor does the Iron Ore/Lorry Lobby want a freight corridor. Both want to desperately use Shirady Ghat. This Shirady Ghat fiasco has become a symbol of how powerful lobbies have become in our "people's republic" of India. We we as a strong nation can rock America and the rest of the world by signing a nuclear deal, we do not even have to power to curtail lobbies in Karnataka.

http://www.mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=86539

 

COMMENTS

Bus lobby relatively easy to take on

mcadambi - 30 July, 2008 - 04:40

It is relatively easy to take on the bus / transport lobby than the mining lobby. Lets try to achieve this first. Lets promote the campaign for more passenger trains to Mangalore from Bangalore

Transport and Mining ministries

mcadambi - 29 July, 2008 - 05:33

Transports and mining ministries are one of the most politicised lobby filled ministries in Karnataka. In order to get posting of a minister in these two one has to shell out crores together. No wonder an entire matrix of corruption exists throughout these ministries and shirady ghat is a direct casualty of that.

35 crores down the drain(or shall I say ghats?)

blrpraj - 29 July, 2008 - 21:17

I found this para from the referenced article pretty interesting ->

According to an official of Kumara Gowda and sons (one of the mining companies in Sandhur),  the mining fines transport cannot be financially viable if they are carried in legal tonnage loads (LTL) as the value of transportation will be more than the value of the load. If a truck can carry only 10 tonnes to a distance of 450 kilometer the haulage charges was Rs. 6000 while the cost of 10 tonnes of mining files was Rs. 5000 at Rs. 500 per ton. So each truck was laden with double the load. A 12 tonner truck will carry nearly 18-20 tonnes while a 16 tonner will carry 40-45 tonnes.

I wonder if they have calculated what it costs their business to have a non operational road!! Typical short term thinking whereas the long term picture is - a road that is shutdown affecting business, having lengthy detours, higher maintenance and fuel costs on the trucks. 

Also, these lines (again from the referenced article) are interesting ->

The most important National Highway link between Mangalore and Bangalore, National Highway 48 stretch in Shirady has been destroyed again. There is no road and not even a sign of the thousands of tonnes of sand, granite stone, top layer has been washed out and the bare earth is now visible.
 
The 35 kilometer stretch between Adda Holay to Gundia was repaired at a cost of 35 crores for a period of 9 months (October 2007 -June1 2008) is facing closure again. The State National Highway division officials at Mangalore have indicated that the road is not motorable and is not in a position to be certified for safety of passengers and the vehicles. 

Now, I find it 100% impossible to believe a road that was repaired in the past 6 months has crumbled and vanished in a matter of 1 or 2 months. Even with the severest punishment of army tanks going up and down this road should have lasted much longer if the work was done properly. Looks, like the authorities take the public for a bunch of fools. I have a strong hunch that the quality of work is equally to be blamed along with overloaded trucks.

concrete figures?

tsubba - 30 July, 2008 - 01:12

wow! 40 tonnes!! that is maximum rating for some very well engineered roads and even then they have to be on dual carriages or long bodies. what types of trucks are these? its literally like dragging a sledgehammer through the roads that too with all those curves. also, this 35 crores for 35 kms is very interesting. About a year back, concrete on KH road in Bangalore cost exactly 1 crore/km. I will be really surprised if engineering + construction on a rain soaked mountain would be the same as that of flatland urban road. what happened to the trains? what is the problem with truck using trains? also, any idea about where the contractors and engineers for this road?

Campaign for Rail

mcadambi - 30 July, 2008 - 04:33

This is an election year until May 2009 when general elections are due. If we start a campaign for additional trains from Bangalore - Mangalore, it might bear fruit if we start knocking at the right doors.

Shirady Ghat

Binoi-kv - 7 February, 2009 - 09:53

Hi
 
I was born in Marnahally, in the beginning point of Shirady ghat. I had done my high schooling in St Antony’s high school, Udane. Everyday I have to travel around 30 Km to reach my school though the Western ghats. (During 1985 to19 87). During those days there were thousands of heavy trucks carrying granites to Mangalore port every day through the same road and the road condition was much better than the situation now. Hence I can strongly argue that the current problem is not only because of heavy loaded trucks and rain.
 
Either our engineers are trying to reinvent the wheel by changing the road building techniques or they have totally  lost their way in corruption.
If the Government rebuilds  the  road with the same people after one year we will have the same problem again. Please note thousands of Indians traveling in the same road are having problems related to the back bone. Thousands of Indians living by the road side are having respiratory related diseases. The Roads tar is flowing into the river and killing life’s in the river. Still no Indians have come forward to stand against it and fight for their rights. No politician has social responsibility to raise their voice for the people who travel.  No travel agency’s association and transport union have time to protest against it to save their trucks or busses maintenance cost.  We have serious situation in Karnataka we are busy in hitting girls who go to pub and to make news  and busy in discussing religion and how to destroy each other. Our media is just busy in telecasting boring petty cases and film fundas. Why don’t media adapt a regular slot for infra structure watch and corruption in this line? During popular viewing time!
 
I have a humble request to our youngsters and educated society who think for India and develop India to fight against it at what ever ways you can.   I am out of country since last 15 years and visit India once in a year and had been to most of the countries for business trips. I have never seen such a worst road any where in the world.  
 
We have thousands of brilliant engineers and well equipped reputed construction companies in India. Why can’t we use them to build the roads instead of going behind 3rd class contractors and stupid engineers?

Re: Shirady Ghat

idontspam - 7 February, 2009 - 10:11

Why can’t we use them to build the roads instead of going behind 3rd class contractors and stupid engineers?

It goes back to motivations and work ethics of our civic authorities and administrators who award these contracts. Nothing prevents them from awarding contracts with stringent standards and penalties and enforcing them. They just dont care that their actions affect thousands of people their life and limbs because they know they can get away scot free and make some money in the bargain. If I screw up in my job I can be fired ,whereas they can go back smug and award another fat contract to friends, nothing happens. We need auditors for these roads, right now it you, me and the rest of folks who can sit up and make some noise, lets do that and blow some whistles.

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