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Five years on, parallel railway overbridge between Udupi and Manipal on NH 169A remains a non-starter

Those travelling between temple town Udupi and education hub Manipal and beyond on National Highway 169A will continue to endure the inconvenience of traffic gridlock at Indrali, as construction of a parallel railway overbridge on the Mangaluru-Mumbai railway line has not been carried out for the last five years.

Part of the Malpe-Tirthahalli NH 169A widening project, the proposal for the 12 metre-wide and 58 metre-long single-span parallel RoB is being tossed between the National Highways wing of the State Public Works Department, Union Road Transport Ministry and the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL). Five years have passed after the single-span RoB was proposed while bureaucratic delays and red tapism delayed approvals for design change, cost escalation and other matters.

Minister’s direction to speed up work

On August 23, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP and Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje directed the NH-PWD and KRCL to ensure the RoB is completed by November. When The Hindu did a reality check on August 24, the site was as it was four years ago, showing no sign of or potential for early completion of work.

Thousands of people travel on the stretch between Udupi and Manipal and beyond on the NH every day, enduring traffic jams during peak hours. The four-lane concrete road between the two cities was completed about two years ago, except for this 60-metre stretch. Consequently, vehicles are diverted on the two-lane single carriageway from MGM College to Indrali bus stop.

Awaiting approval of KRCL

An NH-PWD engineer told The Hindu that the PWD team will visit KRCL headquarters in Navi Mumbai next week to get approval from its Chief Engineer for a design change of the bow-string bridge. Steel was procured by the chosen contractor in Hubballi-Dharwad, and it is a matter of a few days for erection of the pre-fabricated bridge after getting the approval from KRCL, the engineer said.

For the record, in February 2023, another engineer had told the Udupi Deputy Commissioner that all necessary approvals from agencies concerned were obtained, and the bridge would be completed before the monsoon.