Udupi : K. Raghupati Bhat, former MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, has urged Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, to get more grants to Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) in the light of State government’s proposal to declare national highways as city local authority roads.

Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Bhat said that the State Cabinet in its meeting on June 7 had urged the Union government to declare national highways, which passed through urban local bodies (ULBs), including city corporations, city municipalities, town municipalities and town panchayats in the State, as city local authority roads.

This was done to protect about 6,000 bars which were located on these highways. The government’s move to protect the bars was welcome as a large number of people worked in them and their livelihood had to be protected, he said.

But the urban local bodies did not have adequate revenue to either construct or maintain these national highways. There were two national highways — NH 66 and NH169A — which passed through Udupi. There were already demands for the construction of a flyover at Ambalpady on NH 66, while there would be future demands for flyovers at Ambagilu and Kallianpur-Santhekatte. The construction of an underpass at Karavali Junction here too would be affected, he said.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and National Highways had already prepared Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for the widening of the Malpe-Karavali Junction stretch and the Manipal-Parkala stretch on NH169A. These roads required urgent widening, he said.

But with the State urging the Centre to declare national highways as city roads, there were questions as to from where the Udupi CMC would get funds to widen the two stretches on NH169A and to build flyovers on NH66 in the city. The grants given to the Udupi CMC were meagre. Hence, Mr. Madhwaraj should use his good offices and urge Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to release funds for these pending projects, he said.

Besides, Mr. Madhwaraj should urge the State government to release at least 50% of revenue collected from the bars located on national highways by the Excise Department to the Udupi CMC. This was needed for the development of Udupi, Mr. Bhat said.