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MANGALURU: The service road between NH 66 and NH 169 (earlier 13), which connects Moodbidri and Karkala, does not seem to serve its purpose. The width of the road is less than 7m. This narrow space makes it difficult for the vehicles to pass through. To make matters worse, the road does not seem to have a footpath. Death by road is a certainty if pedestrians are not watchful.

 The situation has been prevailing for long at this 50-metre stretch. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) couldn’t do much to rectify the issue.

 The problem began in 2005, when the Port Road Connectivity project commenced. There had been protests regarding alleged misalignment by residents in Surathkal on NH 17 and Bikkarnakatte. In Bikkarnakatte, residents wanted the centre of the existing NH to be taken as reference while designing the flyover.

 Arun Shetty, a resident who approached the court, said: "Due to faulty design by NHAI project consultants, the residents on one side of the national highway faced problems, as the flyover at the junction was designed in such a way that forced the acquisition of several commercial and residential properties. On the other hand, the properties on the opposite side remained unaffected."

 "The residents had then pointed out that if the flyover is realigned many houses and commercial establishments could have been saved. On the northern side, more than 100 structures were affected due to the project design. Had they re-worked on the flyover design, only less than 15 structures would have been affected," Shetty added.

 The end result was that the residents who lost maximum amount of property protested and approached the courts. The case was moved to the Supreme Court. The long delay forced NHAI to leave the land acquisition for service road half way and finished the road within the existing width. However, on the other side, the road is double the width of this road, allowing smooth flow of traffic. In case buses take the other road to go towards Moodabidri, it would leave the traffic gridlocked.

 NHAI project director Vijay Kumar said: "We cannot do anything about the width of the service road since the project is complete and the contract is over. The residents have now begun realizing that had they not opposed land acquisition they would have had a better service road. What we can do now? Even in the future I don’t think there will be any scope for widening as it will once again lead to land acquisition."