The Hindu 01.12.2010
M.G. Road likely to be made a six-lane way
Raviprasad Kamila
| Corporation has approved widening of PVS Circle junction |
SHOWPIECE STREET:The Mahatma Gandhi Road is all set to witness a drastic change if the Mangalore City Corporation has its way.
MANGALORE: Mangalore City Corporation has planned to widen the busy Mahatma Gandhi Road here into a six-lane 24-metre wide road.
According to the plan, the existing 18-metre wide four-lane road from P.V.S. Circle to Lady Hill Circle will be widened.
As a first step, the corporation council at its meeting on Monday approved a proposal to acquire land for widening only the PVS Circle. However, the proposal placed in the meeting by the Development Cell of the corporation did not mention anything about widening the M.G. Road.
K.N. Vijayaprakash, Commissioner of the corporation, told The Hindu that the civic body had plans to widen the road. A beginning would be made by widening the PVS Circle junction to 24 metres, he said.
Traffic density on the road was on the rise. With several education institutions located along M.G. Road and Kodialbail, nearly 7,000 students used the road daily.
Sources in the cell said while approaching from PVS Circle to Lady Hill, land on the right side at the circle would be acquired.
The council gave its approval for acquiring this property. There was a building belonging to a temple on this property.
They said that according to the plan, the 24-metre-wide road would have a 20-metre-wide carriageway and 1.5-metre-wide pavement on both sides.
The median would be one-metre wide. At present, the carriageway was 14-metre wide and median half a metre wide. The pavement was 1.5-metre wide, sources said.
The former Mayor M. Shankar Bhat said when he was the Mayor he had held talks to convince the occupants of the temple building at the P.V.S. Circle to vacate. The corporation had promised them to build another building behind the spot. Barring one, the others had agreed to the proposal. A trader was adamant and the civic body did not have any option but to acquire the property.
Mr. Bhat said the circle had to be widened to ease traffic congestion.
