‘Bengaluru-Mysuru highway flooded because villagers…’, Govt issues statement

In an official statement released by the ministry, they have said that villagers blocked the drain path near Ramanagara stretch where the waterlogging was observed.

“Villagers of Madapura and others have tried to shortcut access to enter their agriculture lands & village at Km.42+640 by blocking the drain with soil for a width of 3m to make their own pathway from service road resulting in inundation of road due to blockage of drainage path. The pathway constructed by the Villagers for their access was removed on March 18 early morning itself.” the statement read.

On Saturday morning, the Ramanagara stretch on the Bengaluru – Mysuru expressway saw a waterlogging after a moderate spell of rains in the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The Highway was built with the aim to decongest the traffic from Bengaluru to Mysuru, thereby reducing the travel time from three hours to seventy five minutes.

According to reports, traffic was slower on Saturday owing to bumper-to-bumper accidents, as water stayed stagnant in the underridge on the highway. Notably, this is the same underbridge that flooded last year when Karnataka received unprecedented rains.

On his visit to poll bound Karnataka, six days ago, PM Modi had inaugurated several projects int he states, including the Bangalore-Mysore Highway. The 119 km Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway project on NH-275 is a 6-10 lane access-controlled highway developed at a cost of ₹8,480 crore by the ministry of road transport and highway.

On Friday, hailstones and rain battered the city of Kalaburagi.

Notably, three days after inauguration, Deccan Chronicle had reported that portion of the newly opened Bengaluru-Mysuru National Highway was damaged at an overpass near Bidadi.

After the damage was detected, officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) took up the repair works.