Highways department to handle full maintenance during monsoon
Gutter cleaning on Chorla Ghat highway in full swing.
Photo Credits: Uday Sawant
The Chorla Ghat Highway connecting Goa and Belgaum has now been accorded the status of a National Highway. Full precautions have been taken to prevent possible landslides during this rainy season. A special agency has been appointed for this purpose and special care will be taken to ensure that passengers travelling on this highway are not disturbed during the monsoon season, said Atmaram Gawde, Executive Engineer, Highway authorities of Public Works Department. When contacted, he said that despite the onset of the monsoon season, work on repairing the gutters has been started on a war footing. As a result, special care will be taken to ensure that sewage water does not flow onto the highway, Gawde said.
The Chorla Highway connecting Goa and Belgaum is very important for the commuters. Especially during the monsoon season, traffic on the road is constantly hampered. Earlier, the highway was under the control of Valpoi Public Works Department. Currently, since it has been given status of national highway, so the control of this highway has been handed over to the Highways Department of the Public Works Department. As a result, it will now be managed entirely by the department. When contacted, Executive Engineer Atmaram Gawde said that the system has been set up in case of landslides during this year's monsoon season. Efforts will be made to remove the landslides as soon as possible. A special agency has been appointed for this purpose and all types of machinery will be operational through it, Atmaram Gawde has clarified.
At present the hotmix is asphalted from the Sankhali to the Goa border between Goa and Karnataka. The first phase of the asphalting has been completed. The second phase will be started later in the rainy season, Gawde said. The system of this department will work well to manage this road very effectively after the rainy season. Efforts will be made to erect protective walls at various places to control the types of landslides during the monsoon season. This time, there would be control over all landslides during the rainy season.
Meanwhile, the gutter system on both sides of the highway is in dilapidated state. As a result, the water in the gutters is flowing onto the road, so damage to roads is constantly taking place. This year, however, work has been started to facilitate this sewerage system. Currently, the work is going on in full swing. Special care is being taken to ensure that rain water does not flow onto the road under any circumstances. Although there are some problems due to lack of sewerage system in many places, the cleaning work will continue till the sewerage system is operational back again, Gawde said.
