Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has criticised the unscientific road construction by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Saturday, August 3, after inspecting the landslide site at Shiradi Ghat. He said that vertical cutting of hill slopes should have been done at a 45-degree-angle and not at 90-degree angle. Siddaramaiah was accompanied by chief secretary Shalini Rajneesh during his inspection at NH-75 at Sakleshpur in Hassan.
The Chief Minister asked the chief secretary to write to the Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and raised questions regarding the road construction methods followed by the NHAI regional office. “Cutting the roads at an angle of 35-45 degrees and building a retaining wall would have prevented the landslide. There were no soil quality tests or safety measures conducted before the construction of the road,” he said.
Stating that the number of landslides increased due to excess rainfall, Siddaramaiah said he has asked NHAI to acquire more land and not cut the hills at 90 degrees. “Hassan received 65% more rainfall, Sakleshpur received 12% more rainfall, Shirdi Ghat also received more rainfall,” he added.
Since July 30, multiple landslides have been reported in the Shiradi Ghat area. Motorists escaped with minor injuries after several vehicles were buried in a large landslide on National Highway 75 in Karnataka’s Hassan district on Tuesday, July 30.
On July 31, two containers and a tanker got buried under the mud leading to traffic restrictions. On August 1, another landslide occurred. Shiradi ghat — the section of NH 75 that connects Bengaluru and Mangaluru — is a landslide prone area, according to a 2022 report prepared by the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority. The Hindu reported that the recommendations of this report only remained on paper.
