Road between Indi Pump Circle and Manjunath Nagar to be concretised

HUBBALLI: As part of the efforts to enhance the visual appeal of some of the city’s thoroughfares, the authorities have decided to transform the street between Indi Pump Circle and Manjunath Nagar into a concrete road, along the lines of streets that have been refurbished under the TenderSURE project. Work on concretisation of the eight-kilometre road is expected to get under way soon.
MLA Arvind Bellad said that, although the road was slated to be developed using money allocated under the Central Road Fund (CRF), a contractor who was assigned the task had walked away from the project owing to delay in the disbursement of funds. “Those contracted under CRF are not being paid regularly,” Bellad rued.
He said that Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) would helm the project. “When the situation improves, we will utilise the money under CRF to embellish the road further,” the MLA said.
Bellad said that the plan included, besides concretising the road, routing all the wires, cables and pipelines in an underground duct. “This will prevent the road from being dug up and repaired. There are also plans to have a cycle path on the road. Anang Nagar is a locality with a high concentration of daily wage labourers and they will be able to travel to their respective workplaces by cycling,” he added.
The legislator said that the cycle track on the road could then be connected with the one already built on the TenderSURE road between Arts College and Tolankere.
Conceding that the condition of the road between Indi Pump Circle and Siddharoodha Mutt Cross was poor, Bellad said, “But the potholes along the stretch between Shakti Nagar and Manjunath Nagar have been filled.”
Congress leader Nagaraj Gouri said that a portion of the road between Manjunath Nagar and Indi Pump Circle was developed using grants of the 14th Finance Commission. “The road has been neglected since the entire stretch does not come under the jurisdiction of one corporator. One part of the road is under the purview of the Central assembly constituency while one half of the road falls under the jurisdiction of Hubballi-Dharwad (West) segment. As a result, the development of the road has been a distant dream,” Nagaraj said.
The Congress leader took umbrage at the proposed cycle track, which he said would serve no purpose. “We already know the fate of the cycle track on the TenderSURE road. People use the cycle path to park their vehicles. Refurbishing the road is good but there is no need for a cycle track,” Nagaraj said.
Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation commissioner Suresh Itnal was not available to comment on the issue.