Four-laning of the busy Mangaluru-Bengaluru National Highway 75 between Addahole and B.C. Road (65 km) in Dakshina Kannada has hit a roadblock with contractor Larsen & Toubro reportedly submitting a letter of foreclosure of contract to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

With frequent additions and deletions of work and non-availability of working area at many places, the construction major is learnt to have decided to exit the contract 20 months after the work order was issued in March 2017.

It was supposed to have completed the four-lane concrete road within 30 months at a cost of ₹ 821 crore under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.

The project also involved the construction of 14.5 km service roads, two flyovers, two major bridges, 14 minor bridges, nine underpasses and a toll plaza. During the last 20 months, the contractor had cleared nearly 7,000 trees and commenced earthwork to get 45 metres of right of way.

Sources privy to the project told The Hindu that NHAI was yet to get forest clearance for about a 21-km road stretch where additional land was required to execute slope cutting of the hills. NHAI also wanted to enhance the size of three elephant underpasses between Addahole and Periyashanthi besides widening three minor bridges to facilitate wildlife movement.

As against the proposed pedestrian underpasses at Nellyadi and Rekhya villages, NHAI wanted vehicular underpasses keeping the future growth of traffic in mind. As desired by a Member of Parliament, it also wanted to convert a proposed at-grade junctions at Subrahmanya Cross and Puttur Cross near Uppinangady, Melkar Junction and Narikombu into vehicular underpasses. As 31 pipe culverts that had to be extended to the breadth of a four-lane road did not have 900 mm dia, L&T had proposed to widen them to 1.2 m dia.

The sources said that NHAI had turned down the L&T demand to change the scope of contract by adding these works likely to cost ₹ 108 crore as it exceeded 10 % of the original contract and instead, wanted to take up works on its own. NHAI also deleted 1.2 km elevated road to bypass Kalladka town from the scope of contract.

With all these developments, the contractor, who has spent ₹ 145 crore, felt that it would incur further losses on continuation of work and decided to withdraw.

The sources in the NHAI said that the authority wants L&T to continue the works and is making every effort to address the issues. Meanwhile, an independent observer felt that both NHAI and L&T are right in their perspective as additions and deletions were not foreseen during preparation of the detailed project report.

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