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Complex is coming up at Nittur on NH-66 at a cost of ` 2.19 crore

Though Udupi district was carved from the erstwhile Dakshina Kannada district 15 years ago, the district had only one KSRTC depot at Kundapur. With the work on KSRTC depot at Udupi is under progress, the KSRTC will soon get a new depot in Udupi itself.

The depot is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 2.19 crore at Nittur on NH 66.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, KSRTC Mangalore Divisional Controller Mahesh said that it was initially planned to complete the work by September 30. “However, we are yet to get NOC from the Explosives department, Chennai, for installing diesel bunk in the depot. We have already written a letter to the department seeking permission for the same. Once we get the permission, then we need to take permission from Indian Oil Corporation. The work on electrical wiring has to be carried out as well.”

Without the depot in Udupi, all the buses have to come either from Mangalore or Kundapur depot. With the completion of the work on the depot, the KSRTC can ply from Udupi depot itself.

In fact, Udupi does not have a full-fledged KSRTC bus shelter. As many as 200 buses arrive and leave the temple town daily. The KSRTC bus-stand functions from a small complex constructed by the Udupi City Municipal Council. But it has space only for a few buses. Besides, the KSRTC buses have to struggle for space with private buses. Without the depot, buses are found parked beside the road near the Inspection Bungalow or Ajjarkad. With the completion of the depot, the KSRTC buses can be parked in the new depot. The KSRTC depot was a long pending demand of the people of the region.

He said about 80 per cent of the work on the depot is completed. The work on washing ramp, maintenance base, toilets, rest room and traffic section has been completed. The depot is built in around four acre land and is spacious. It can accommodate around 200 buses at a time.

The four acre land was purchased from the Cashew Corporation. The work on the compound wall has been completed in three sides, he said.

To a query on starting the city services in Udupi, he said “the KSRTC had commissioned a city service between Udupi and Malpe in the past. However, the private operators had brought in a stay from the court against the KSRTC service and the matter is before the court of law.”

“We have not worked out on the schedule for starting new services in Udupi,” he said.

Indian dies of swine flu in Bahrain

A 41-year-old Indian national has died in Bahrain of swine flu after apparently contracting the infection while on a holiday in India.

Jose Arulappan Venzilause Gomez died at the Royal Bahrain Hospital (RBH) on Friday.

He apparently contracted swine flu while holidaying in India, the Gulf Daily News reported.

Gomez was admitted to a hospital just days after he arrived back in Bahrain on September 1 and became the country’s first reported H1N1 fatality since January last year.

Gomez was first admitted to the American Mission Hospital (AMH), but was later transferred to the Royal Bahrain Hospital.

"He went on vacation to Thiruvananthapuram for 15 days with his family. He went on August 15 and came back on September 1.

"He didn’t come to the office except once to take his computer and he went back home as he was not feeling well. He told us that he was suffering from flu and took sick leave," a spokesman for his employer, ABB Technologies, told the newspaper