A newly built major bridge across River Souparnika during the four-lane work of NH 66 developed a huge crack in one of its girder joints on Saturday in Kundapura taluk of Udupi district.
Immediately hearing about the development, Kundapura police restricted vehicular movement on the new bridge (carriageway from Karwar to Udupi) and diverted the vehicles on the old bridge at Arate-Hosadu, said Police Inspector Gopikrishna. Eyewitnesses said broken steel rods were visible through the gap.
The nearly 1-km-long bridge was part of four laning of NH 66 between Kundapura and Goa border. IRB West Coast Tollway Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of IRB Infrastructure that undertook the project in 2014 on BOOT basis, is yet to complete the four-lane work.
Residents along the highway stretch had been alleging substandard work in the execution of the project from the very beginning.
NHAI Project Director, Mangaluru, Shishu Mohan, refused to receive telephone calls.
