Mangaluru: The widening of national highway 75 between Gundya and B C Road has begun. L & T Company has been entrusted with this project and the work of laying parallel concrete road to the existing road has begun.

The work, which was to begin last year, had to be deferred by a year on account of delay involved in land acquisition and shifting of electric poles, water pipe,etc, informed the officials

64 kilometre (km) long strech of the road will undergo widening. The company has initially undertaken widening work for a stretch of 20 km. The work will be stopped during the rainy season, the contractors said. The company has to lay the concrete road even as dense traffic continues to flow on the other side, makes the work challenging.

Road bends would be straightened wherever practicable and in case of road stretch passing through land of lower gradient, efforts would be made to increase its height to level the highway during widening. It has come to knowledge that since there the NH passes through forest area, the total width of the road will be confined to 30 metres in forest areas and 45 metres in other places.

This road widening project has axed down thousands of trees and plants belonging to forest, national highway and horticultural department.