Udupi: The Malpe–Padukere Bridge will be inaugurated on 11 March 2017 at 5 pm, said Pramod Madhwaraj, District In-charge, Minister for Fisheries, Sports and Youth Empowerment.He was speaking to media persons after inspecting the said bridge construction on Wednesday, February 15. He said, The construction of bridge was proposed by the previous government. But the finance and other infrastructure works has been done by the present government under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and myself as MLA since October 2013. The work of the bridge is almost completed and the remaining connecting work of the road and the bridge will be done by the end of February.”

Earlier, the estimation for bridge construction was Rs 12.70 Crore. Later, the width of the bridge was increased to 6.25 meters from 5.5 meters and also the height raising the cost to Rs 16.90 Crore. Still another Rs 1 Crore is needed for the construction of the road connecting to the bridge, he said.

After the completion of the bridge, the virgin beach of Padukere will be developed by the tourism department. With the construction of the bridge a large number of people will be benefited, he added.

Udupi Municipal Council Commissioner Manjunathaiah, Zilla Panchayat member Janardhan Tonse, The Ace Technocrats Pvt Ltd officials, Congress leaders Sathish Amin Padukere, Prashanth Poojary, Vice President of Udupi CMC Sandhya Thilakraj, CMC Councilor Narayan Kunder and others were present.