Admitting that construction of a tunnel at Karmal Ghat is expensive, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has reportedly agreed to the possibility of a four or six lane road to eliminate accidents along the ghat.
Following frequent accidents on the Karmal Ghat section of the NH66 highway, residents have been demanding an early start of the 4-lane construction between Char-Rasta and Balli.
Environmentalists and a number of residents have, however, objected to the felling of trees and disturbing wildlife, and, instead, demanded a tunnel at Karmal Ghat.
According to sources, a video video conference was arranged with Gadkari in New Delhi on Monday to discuss the proposal for a tunnel at Kalmal Ghat on NH66.
During the video conference, Speaker and Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar informed Gadkari that the NH66 highway stretch at Karmal Ghat is an accident-prone, with 1-2 mishaps taking place almost on a daily basis.
Tawadkar then put forth a demand for a tunnel at Karmal Ghat, not just to avoid accidents but also to displacement of wildlife and to avoid cutting of trees.
Gadkari was then heard explaining to Tawadkar that construction of a tunnel is expensive and added that a lot of work is in progress in Goa, for which payments have to be made as well.
The union minister then suggested that efforts would be made to have a 4 or 6-lane road to eliminate mishaps along the route.
“About 2,500 trees are needed to be cut and let permission from Goa happen quickly and my from end, I will immediately begin the 4-6 lane work. A 45-metre width is more than sufficient to make the section either for 4 or 6 lanes.”
“We will grow trees and you just only see that permission to cut these trees comes from the forest authorities,” Gadkari is reported to have told Tawadkar.
“I will also tell my officials to put a proposal before the forest authorities and once the forest clearance comes, we will see that land acquisition process also takes place. Once both these works are over, I will ensure this accident-prone section at Karmal Ghat will be made accident-free,” the union minister added.
Others present during the video conference included DC(RD) & SS MoRTH S K Nirmal, CE MoRTH O P Shrivastava, CE (Tunnel) MoRTH Rahul Gupta, RO MoRTH (Mumbai) Rajeev Singh, RO, NHAI (Mumbai) Anshumali Shrivastava and CGM, NHAI (HO) P G Khodaskar.
