Mangalore: The five beaches in the city may soon become major tourist destinations of the state. The Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. (formerly known as Karnataka Land Army) is drawing up plans to give these beaches a facelift by March next year.
The five beaches are among the 23 beaches in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts that are being developed with the Rs. 50 crore grant from the Central government.
In a presentation on tourist facilities at a meeting on Tuesday, KRIDL Superintending Engineer T.S. Kaladgi said Rs. 13.91 crore will be spent to improve connecting roads, installing benches and providing other infrastructure required at the Surathkal, Someshwar, Ullal, Talapady beaches, and Sultan Battery. They will be placing the estimate for approval of the government and work is likely to begin from the last week of November.
Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim, directed Kaladgi to incorporate suggestions made by the District Tourism Development Committee that has studied the requirements at all these places, in the plan.
Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat Tulasi Maddineni, who headed the district committee, said the requirements proposed have been made on the basis of what each of these five places will be developed as.
While the Someshwar and Ullal will be developed as family beaches, where there will be a children’s play area as well, the Surathkal beach will be developed as a tourists’ beach. Talapady, which borders Kerala, will be developed as a beach for nature lovers, while Sultan Battery will be developed to meet the requirements of the local people.
Kaladgi said KRIDL would try to incorporate the suggestions and said that a similar estimate was done for development of beaches in Uttara Kannada district. The proposal was placed for approval on October 20. After Mangalore, the KRIDL will prepare the estimate for development of Padubidri, Kaup, Malpe, Trasi, Maravanthe and Shirur Ottinene beaches in Udupi district.
Darashaw & company has been appointed as the agency to implement the project. The development work will be completed within six months from now. The money sanctioned for the development of 5 beaches is as follows:
1. Sultan Battery beach-Rs.2 crores.
2. Talapady beach-Rs.3 crores.
3. Suratkal beach-Rs. 2 crore.
4. Ullal beach- Rs. 1 crore.
5. Someshwar beach-Rs. 3 crores.
