Bantwal:  Locals feared they would lose  Kalladka town  as the move to construct a four-lane road gathered pace. However, they are are relieved after district the administration dropped plans to construct an underpass on both sides of the NH.

Ramanath Rai, district in-charge minister who held a meeting with district commissioner A B Ibarahim along with officials and representatives from Kalladka strictly directed that the road be constructed without demolishing houses or affecting agricultural land.

Under the previous UPA government, The National Highways Autority of India, had marked out land  of 45 meteres for road work on national highway 75 in Kalladka. The plan was to construct highway at a height of 15 meters feet at the present town NH, and create an underpass in Amtoor and Vittal road which is included in the project.

The locals had objected to the project as it would affect 45 shops and a few houses in the area. In a google survey carried out, one road was to pass through a school and required the demolition of 15 houses.

He also ordered to conduct survey for bypass road from Kalladaka Narahari town till Dasakodi and construct it on government land if possible. He also asked officials not to delay the project.

Deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim, national highway authority executive engineer C Nataraj, CGM Reddy, Project director M Fernandes, land acquisition officer Manjunath, zilla panchayat member Chandraprakash Shetty, Bantwal Buda president Pius L Rodrigues, district Congress president B H Khader, Bantwal tahsildar Purandara Hegde, revenue official A P Bhat, Kallada zonal leader Dinesh Shenoy, Thirumaleshwara Bhat, K Padmanabha Rai, B K Idinabba, Mohammed Haneef, Kunhi Ahmed, Stanley, PWD engineer Umesh Bhat and others were present.