Commuters to Mangaluru International Airport will have to wait for some more months for the exit road, closed for traffic for two years, to get ready as a concrete road.
The stretch of road being upgraded by Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL) was expected to be ready by this month-end. But the government agency has not been able to get it ready as expected.
S.D. Ashok, Executive Engineer, Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd., Mysuru, told The Hindu over phone that 900 m of the 1.2-km stretch would be concreted from the terminal building side. The remaining portion, which is a junction where the concrete road would join the Bajpe-Mangaluru Road, would be asphalted.
Now, a base layer of concrete with 20 cm thickness has been laid to a length of 450 m from the terminal building side. Another layer of concrete with a thickness of 28 cm would have to be laid on top of it. A base layer of concrete for the remaining 450-m stretch was yet to be laid. Mr. Ashok said that earth excavation took a long time. Mini springs at five spots on the road forced the agency to make some changes in the design of the road.
Without committing himself to a deadline of completing the road, the executive engineer said that “it would be completed at the earliest.”
The road, which will be 10 m in width, had been closed since March 2013. The junction will be 18 m wide.
There would be concrete drains on both the sides, besides streetlights. There would not be any median on the road with a view to facilitating the movement of long-chassis vehicles such as buses and lorries.
J.T. Radhakrishna, director of the airport, said that as the entry road had steep curves, it made it difficult for long chassis vehicles to negotiate it. There would not be any steep curve on the exit road. Hence, it would not merely remain as an exit road but would also carry two-way cargo traffic.
