Mangaluru: Shivabagh residents were taken by surprise on Friday morning when MCC officials suddenly started to repair the Shivabagh circle, opposite KFC restaurant which was lying in a bad condition untouched for months together, all thanks to the new district Congress office inauguration scheduled for Saturday, November 19.
The circle which harbors an unused traffic police post, made up of interlocks started losing the interlock blocks one by one as scores of vehicles including heavy vehicles and buses ply on this road. The circle which is at a stone’s throw away from Mangaluru South MLA J R Lobo’s office was ignored and left for the general public to struggle. Many two-wheeler users even had fallen into these death traps and also damaged their vehicles. The locals had even complained to the MCC and local corporator Ashok DK, but no action was initiated in this regard.
But, yesterday all of a sudden, this circle saw a lot of developments as MCC started repairing it all of a sudden. While the work went on at full speed, the surprised residents tried to find the reason for this sudden action. The reason behind this sudden change of heart by the MCC is that the new District Congress office built next to Malikatte Circle which is a few meters from this place was all set to be inaugurated the next day. Top Brass of the Congress including Home Minister Parameshwar is supposed to pass by this way. To avoid embarrassment and since the MCC is ruled by the Congress itself, this sudden action has been initiated. While the residents are happy with the sudden repair of the road, they also feel that they were taken for a ride by the authorities.
Manholes inviting death on the road
The officials who repaired the circle in a hurry have forgotten to take note of the other issue on the same stretch of the road going towards Nanthoor. A manhole which is almost ready to give way and a few cable chamber covers which are almost broken still lie on this road putting commuters lives into risk. Even though the concrete chamber covers are kept ready since months, the authorities have not taken the necessary action to repair or replace them.
When NewsKarnataka.com contacted local corporator Ashok DK, he replied saying that he will look into this issue of manholes. The cable chamber is the responsibility of BSNL who needs to do the repairs, he said.
No footpath, no parking
The whole stretch of the concrete road between Shivabagh till Jimmys Super Market does not have footpath or parking space. Most of the vehicles are parked on the edge of the road forcing pedestrians to walk on the middle of the road risking their lives.
With the local corporator assuring to look into these issues, we have to wait and watch how long it will take the MCC to rectify these problems.
