Mangaluru (ENS): The contentious road widening project for the Ankola-Hubballi stretch of the National Highway 52 may finally see the light of the day.
The forest department has given its consent for widening the road from the intersection of Gokarna Road to Hubballi for a distance of 142 kilometers. Breaking this news to reporters, Forest Minister B Ramanatha Rai said, “After a great effort against the odds, we got the nod for widening the Ankola-Hubballi National Highway 52 from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) of the union government.
The State government had sent the report to the Union government with recommendations to widen the presently single 14 meter road to a twolane 30 meter road. It was not easy to get this done as the road was passing through some dense green belt areas of the Western Ghats. The railway project between Ankola and Hubballi may not materialize as there are several issues pertaining to wildlife and terrain alteration, leading to corridor fragmentation.
However, the National Highways will get only enough land for widening up to two lanes alongside the existing road.” The SouthWestern Railways already has staked its claim to a railway corridor between Hubballi and Ankola. The MoEF has spiked the claim as Hubballi is already connected to Mumbai by railway and Ankola is connected via Konkan railway. It had pointed out Building a railway line through the ghats is more destructive than widening the existing road, says Rai.
When asked if the road between Byrapura in Chikkamgaluru to Shishila in Dakshina Kannada was cleared by the Forest department and if it was true that over 30,000 trees will be chopped down for the project, Rai told reporters: “The project has been discussed threadbare on the floor of the house. It is not true that 30,000 trees will be sacrificed for a distance of 65 kilometers road. Moroever, only 13 kilometers of road in Dakshina Kannada will be widened and the proposal does not feature formation of new roads. At some stretches, roads will be widened which will inevitably result in felling of few trees. I have already told officials to give a report on the number of trees to be felled for this project.”