Hubballi: Authorities of Hubballi-Dharwad Bus Rapid Transit System (HD BRTS) and other government agencies implementing the BRTS project in twin cities have come under fire for delaying the project.
The district administration, Opposition party leaders and the public organisations have taken them to task for the delay. The reason for slow work has been attributed to land acquisition issues, replacement of pipelines and cables among others.
In a recently held review meeting, the district in-charge minister Vinay Kulkarni directed concerned contractors not to come under any pressure by influential persons while widening the roads, and asked them to complete at least one km of road per month.
On Monday, the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar and MP Pralhad Joshi, during a review meeting in Hubballi expessed their displeasure over the slow execution of the project. During their visit to the work sites from Hosur Circle to Navanagar in Hubballi, the leaders found that the roads had turned non-motorable on certain stretches and there had been accidents on these roads resulting in casualties. The residents had even staged protests on a few occasions.
The incomplete bus shelters along the highway are a problem too. The HD BRTS Managing Director M.G. Hiremath then clarified that they had served a notice to the company which undertook works.
The project was supposed to be complete by 2015, but according to BRTS MD the project would be complete by November 2017.
HD BRTS
Hubli-Dharwad BRTS Company Limited is implementing the project. The BRT Corridor, with a length of 22.25 km, originates from Hubli CBT and ends at Dharwad CBT. However, it is now planned to extend the corridor to University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad.
Once the project is complete the HDBRTS and NWKRTC together will run the operations of BRT.
