We never seem to learn.... Shirday ghat is back to square one.
Neither the Bus Lobby want Trains to Mangalore nor does the Iron Ore/Lorry Lobby want a freight corridor. Both want to desperately use Shirady Ghat. This Shirady Ghat fiasco has become a symbol of how powerful lobbies have become in our "people's republic" of India. We we as a strong nation can rock America and the rest of the world by signing a nuclear deal, we do not even have to power to curtail lobbies in Karnataka.
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Transport and Mining ministries
35 crores down the drain(or shall I say ghats?)
I found this para from the referenced article pretty interesting ->
According to an official of Kumara Gowda and sons (one of the mining companies in Sandhur), the mining fines transport cannot be financially viable if they are carried in legal tonnage loads (LTL) as the value of transportation will be more than the value of the load. If a truck can carry only 10 tonnes to a distance of 450 kilometer the haulage charges was Rs. 6000 while the cost of 10 tonnes of mining files was Rs. 5000 at Rs. 500 per ton. So each truck was laden with double the load. A 12 tonner truck will carry nearly 18-20 tonnes while a 16 tonner will carry 40-45 tonnes.
I wonder if they have calculated what it costs their business to have a non operational road!! Typical short term thinking whereas the long term picture is - a road that is shutdown affecting business, having lengthy detours, higher maintenance and fuel costs on the trucks.
Also, these lines (again from the referenced article) are interesting ->
The most important National Highway link between Mangalore and Bangalore, National Highway 48 stretch in Shirady has been destroyed again. There is no road and not even a sign of the thousands of tonnes of sand, granite stone, top layer has been washed out and the bare earth is now visible.
The 35 kilometer stretch between Adda Holay to Gundia was repaired at a cost of 35 crores for a period of 9 months (October 2007 -June1 2008) is facing closure again. The State National Highway division officials at Mangalore have indicated that the road is not motorable and is not in a position to be certified for safety of passengers and the vehicles.
Now, I find it 100% impossible to believe a road that was repaired in the past 6 months has crumbled and vanished in a matter of 1 or 2 months. Even with the severest punishment of army tanks going up and down this road should have lasted much longer if the work was done properly. Looks, like the authorities take the public for a bunch of fools. I have a strong hunch that the quality of work is equally to be blamed along with overloaded trucks.
concrete figures?
Campaign for Rail
Bus lobby relatively easy to take on
Shirady Ghat
Re: Shirady Ghat
Why can’t we use them to build the roads instead of going behind 3rd class contractors and stupid engineers?
It goes back to motivations and work ethics of our civic authorities and administrators who award these contracts. Nothing prevents them from awarding contracts with stringent standards and penalties and enforcing them. They just dont care that their actions affect thousands of people their life and limbs because they know they can get away scot free and make some money in the bargain. If I screw up in my job I can be fired ,whereas they can go back smug and award another fat contract to friends, nothing happens. We need auditors for these roads, right now it you, me and the rest of folks who can sit up and make some noise, lets do that and blow some whistles.