Mangaluru : The city is all set to get a new fisheries harbour at Kulai to accommodate over 350 boats. This will be in addition to the one at Bunder now.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, will lay the foundation stone for the new project through a videoconference from Delhi on Tuesday.

The Minister, on the occasion, will also lay the foundation stone for the Mangaluru city bypass road project, the Mangaluru-Karkala four-lane highway project, and for constructing a new parallel bridge across the Phalguni at Kuluru by demolishing one of the two bridges now.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, said that the ₹1,96.51 crore harbour project will be taken up in two phases.

The first phase will involve building two breakwaters. Berths, jetties, an administrative office, a mechanised repair facility, an ice factory, a godown, and a boat-hauling yard will be built under the second phase.

The Union government will contribute ₹98.25 crore, the New Mangalore Port Trust ₹88.42 crore, and the State government ₹9.82 crore to the project will would be taken up under Sagar Mala, Mr. Kateel said.

It was in 1996 that the then chairman of NMPT Ramkumar had agreed for a survey to set up the harbour at Kulai to accommodate fishermen who had lost their natural harbour at Panambur for construction of the port. The new harbour will be constructed 4.5 km north of the port along the coast for which the State government has handed over land to the Union government.

Mr. Kateel said that the 91.20-km bypass road project will cost about ₹2,500 crore. It will be from Mulki-Kinnigoli-Kateel-Bajpe

-Kaikamba-Polali-Addur- Kalpane-B.C. Road- Panemangalore-Melkar-Konaje-Thokkottu.

He said that the 45-km stretch between Sanur Junction (Karkala) and Bikarnakatte Junction (Mangaluru) via Moodbidri will be upgraded as a four-lane concrete highway at an estimated cost of ₹1,163 crore.

Of 222 hectares of land required for the project, 41 hectares are available now. The remaining land will be acquired soon.

There will be two bypasses at Moodbidri to a length of about 8 km and at Gurupura to a length of about five km.

The new bridge to be built at Kulur will cost an estimated ₹65 crore.