Unending work on NH 75 in Karnataka spells misery for people

Nightmare landslip on NH 75 near Doddathappale village highlights ongoing issues with highway widening and landslips in Karnataka.

What five friends experienced on the intervening night of July 17 and 18 near Doddathappale village on Mangaluru-Bengaluru National Highway 75 was nothing short of a nightmare. On the way back to their native district, Hassan, from a pilgrimage to Dharmasthala and Kukke Subrahmanya in coastal Karnataka, the men in their thirties were virtually buried under heaps of mud when a portion of a hillock fell on their moving car around 2 a.m.

But for the highway construction workers who were close by and rushed to their resuce, they might not have come out alive to tell the tale.

The highway is being widened to four lanes by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) between Hassan and Maranahalli in Hassan district (45 kms) and Adda Hole and B.C. Road in Dakshina Kannada district (63 km). “Two of us also suffered injuries. I have been asked to rest for two weeks,” said construction worker Akhilesh Kumar from Bihar, who was among those who rushed to save the five youths.

Following the July 18 landslip, curbs were imposed on vehicular movement fully for a day and two nights on the following days. Though the restrictions have been relaxed now, traffic crawls because of the condition of the stretch where the metalled road is nearly absent. With curbs on alternative highways (NH 275 Sampaje Ghat and NH 73 Charmadi Ghat), freight movement to and from the port town of Mangaluru to the rest of the State remains severely affected.

The incident is one of the many, some minor and some major, repeatedly occurring on the 10-km stretch of NH 75 between Sakleshpur and Maranahalli, where the winding highway passes through the hillocks before the Shiradi Ghat. For instance, in a similar incident in 2018, an oil tanker got pushed into a gorge near the same location, resulting in two deaths.

Residents believe that unscientific hill cutting, both for highway widening and execution of the Yettinahole Water Diversion project in this region, triggers landslips whenever the area witnesses heavy rains. Portions of the under-construction highway were damaged at several places on the outskirts of Sakleshpur town. “The hillocks have been cut at 90 degrees. The vegetation on the surface has been removed, damaging the soil structure. How can landslips not happen?” wondered Ravi Maranahalli, a two-time gram panchayat member from Hassan district.

This monsoon, Sakleshpur taluk in Hassan received 1,480.9 mm rainfall from June 1 to July 22 as against the normal rainfall of 960.9 mm. July alone saw 1,010.5 mm rainfall as against normal rainfall of 548 mm.