Mysuru: Thirty-four months and a pair of weeks (almost 3 years) have handed after the primary main landslide occurred atop the Chamundi Hill between View Level and Nandi Statue (Nandi Statue Highway) in October 2021. But the vital Rs. 10-crore retaining wall undertaking stays unfinished.
Regardless of guarantees from two successive Governments – first the BJP after which the Congress – the 400-metre stretch of street has been closed to visitors because the incident.
The Public Works Division (PWD), initially slated to finish the development by this Dasara, has now set a brand new deadline of December 2024. The persistent delays have added this undertaking to the rising record of overdue developments in Mysuru.
The part of Chamundi Hill between View Level and Nandi Statue has skilled three collapses. The primary landslide befell on Oct. 20, 2021, close to the placement the place a landslip had occurred in 2019. Following this, on Oct. 31, 2021, the street noticed a major discount, with 80 p.c of it affected within the second slide. One other landslide occurred on Nov. 4, 2021, simply 10 metres away from the realm affected by the Oct. 20 landslide.
Chatting with Star of Mysore this morning, PWD Government Engineer Raju acknowledged that there was a substantial delay within the undertaking completion. “First, there was a delay in fee and secondly, rains disrupted the works for a number of days and we couldn’t catch up tempo and thirdly, there was a delay by the undertaking contractor. We goal to finish the works by December 2024 and open the street for visitors from January 2025,” he mentioned.
When questioned in regards to the incomplete works impeding devotees’ entry to the Nandi monolith statue, significantly throughout Dasara — when Nandi holds important non secular significance — Raju responded, “We’ve opened the street from the Uttanahalli facet for devotees, they usually can use this route.”
Nevertheless, many devotees want the primary Nandi Statue Highway to succeed in the monolith for his or her prayers and are unlikely to make use of the Uttanahalli Highway as an alternative.
Presently, solely 70 p.c of the deliberate 50-ft retaining wall has been constructed from the bottom degree of the collapsed part, following the excavation of a 30-ft trench. Remarkably, work has solely begun on one of many three landslide websites.
As soon as this retaining wall is accomplished, the PWD might want to construct two extra retaining partitions on the different landslide areas. It will require extra funds, and the way forward for these tasks is unsure, provided that the primary retaining wall has remained incomplete for almost three years. This raises critical questions in regards to the PWD’s accountability in ending essential infrastructure tasks.