Mangaluru: The newly constructed bridge across the Phalguni river on National Highway 269 at Gurupur was inaugurated on Friday, June 12.

The bridge, which was constructed at a cost of Rs 39.42 crores, was jointly inaugurated by Dakshina Kannada district in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary and Mangaluru North MLA Dr Y Bharath Shetty in the presence of MP Nalin Kumar Kateel.

“As per the tender, the bridge was to have been completed in two years’ time. However, the work was completed within 16 months. I feel very happy to inaugurate this bridge as it was completed before the deadline.”

Lauding the completion of the work, MP Nalin Kumar, who is also the BJP state president, said, “The tender was bagged by Mugarodi constructions and the work began on February 2019. Even though they had two years to complete the work, they created a record by constructing the bridge within 16 months. As the Mularapatna bridge had collapsed two years ago, more prominence was given for the construction of this bridge and it is now open for public use.”

Mangaluru North MLA Dr Y Bharath Shetty, Zilla Panchayat member U P Ibrahim, Taluk Panchayat member Sachin Adapa, MUDA chairman Ravishankar Mijar, Gurupur Gram Panchayat vice president Uday Bhat, engineers G N Hegde, Ramesh, Keshav Murthy, Keerthi Ameen, BJP district president Sudarshan and others were present.

In the meanwhile, it was reported that many people were gathered for the inauguration, ignoring social distancing norms. Many of those who were gathered for the function were either not wearing masks or were not wearing them properly. Many have criticised the government officials for not following their own rules.