Mangaluru: Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, said on Thursday that the construction of the Malpe-Padukere Bridge was in the final stages.

He was speaking after inspecting the construction work of the bridge at Malpe, here. Presently, people are using a boat to the cross the river to go from Malpe to Padukere and vice-versa

Mr. Madhwaraj said that the pending work of the bridge would be completed in a month and after that it would be thrown open to traffic. The bridge was being constructed at a cost of Rs. 16.91 crore. The width of the bridge is 5.5 metres.

Another Rs. 1 crore would be spent on the construction of a connecting road to the bridge.

The government had also given its nod for the construction of a fisheries jetty here. The jetty would be constructed at a cost of Rs. 10 crore with financial support from NABARD. A total amount of Rs. 28 crore was being spent for the development of the Malpe region, he said. The third phase of work on the Malpe fisheries harbour had almost been completed. It was now possible to berth 13 boats in the slipway, he said.

Mr. Madhwaraj directed the officers to complete the miscellaneous works, if any, under the third phase work at the harbour. He sought a report on all the works taken up under the third phase.

Meenakshi Bannanje, president of the Udupi City Municipal Council, Sandhya, vice-president, and Narayan Kundar, Ramesh Kanchan, Chandrakanth, Ganesh Nergi, municipal councillors, were present.