Centre ready to develop Shiradi Ghat road if Karnataka govt gives some forest land: H D Deve Gowda

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Thursday said that if the state government provided some forest land, the Centre is ready to develop Shiradi Ghat road including constructing tunnels by investing money.

Gowda met Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari here and requested him to address frequent landslides in Shiradi Ghat.

"I had a very fruitful meeting with Union Surface Transport Minister Shri.
@nitin_gadkari  avaru, today. Among other things we discussed, his assurance on the Shiradi Ghat Road was heartening," Deve Gowda posted on X.  

Gowda said that Gadkari assured him that if the Karnataka Government was willing to give a small extent of forest land, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) would consider investing a few thousand crores to develop the Shiradi Ghat road. That would include using tunnelling technology. Hope the state government takes it forward, Gowda posted.

Shiradi Ghat stretch on Mangaluru-Bengaluru highway has been facing frequent landslides leading to road blocks.

In 2022, Gadkari said that the Centre dropped the plan to build a tunnel on Shiradi Ghat and decided to  construct a four lane road  to address vehicle density on this stretch of National Highway-75 .

Replying to the then Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha member Nalin Kumar Kateel question in Lok Sabha, Gadkari said  earlier the National Highway Authority of India had planned to build tunnels at Shiradi Ghat. 

Since construction of tunnels in this stretch involves huge investments as well as difficulties in execution of work, the NHAI decided to convert the existing two lane highway to four lanes. The NHAI has started the process to prepare a detailed project report, Gadkari had said.