Hassan: Public Works Minister HC Mahadevappa will announce the date of closure of ShiradiGhat section of Bengaluru-Mangaluru National Highway 75 for traffic on December 4.

The National Highway is in all readiness to execute the 13 km rigid pavement works on the Shiradi Ghat section starting from Maranahalli, said National Highways Zone chief engineer C Mruthyunjaya Swamy here on Monday. The date of closure of Shiradi Ghat has not been finalised yet. But it will not be way off the mark of the date announced earlier which is December 15. We wanted to have at least 50% of the material required for the work. At present we have just 13% of the required sand and coarse aggregate,” he said.

The PWD minister will visit the work site on December 4 on which date he will announce when the section will be closed for traffic.

Ocean Constructions India Private Limited partners Abid Ali and Uday Hegde said: The stocked materials are enough for us to execute work till two months without any hindrance. We have been assured of adequate supply during the construction period.

The work requires 15,622 metric tons of cement, 30,507 cubic mts of sand and 65,5860 cubic mts of coarse aggregate. As on date, 8,000 cubic mts of sand and 6,000 cubic mts of coarse aggregate has been collected. Swamy said: further sand at the rate of 500 cubic mts and 600 cubic mts per day collection is under progress.

Presently, the contractors are engaged in widening seven culverts. There are 50 culverts in the 13 km stretch and of them 20 require reconstruction and rest are targeted for widening.

The ugradation of the 47 km Shiradi Ghat stretch will take place at a cost of Rs 155.18 crore. The work would be carried out in two packages – the first would be the 13.62 km stretch from Heggadde to Kempu Holey at a cost of Rs 69.90 crore and the second would be from Gulagalale to Heggadde, a stretch of 21 kms and from Kempu Holey to Adda Holey, a stretch of 12.38 kms at a cost of Rs 85.28 crore. The second package will be taken under Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode and the tendering process is on, said Swamy. We are endeavoring that both works start in tandem so that it will minimize inconvenience to road users,” added Swamy.

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