Mangaluru : Traffic at Pumpwell on the National Highway 66 and the roads joining it  hits traffic movement as the contractor of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) continued with the flyover construction work on the highway at Pumpwell by closing the entry to service road leading towards Thokkottu.

The Navayuga Udupi Tollway Pvt. Ltd., the company that has taken up the contract of widening the highway for NHAI, was so far doing the piling work (for erecting pillars) for the flyover within the Mahaveera Circle. Its workers shifted the work outside the circle on Wednesday by drilling the highway for piling work. Closure of the entry to service road led to traffic jam causing inconvenience to many office-goers, students, professionals and others. As vehicles heading towards Talapady from Padil, Kankanady and Nanthoor were made to use the main road, it resulted in jam. Commissioner of Police M. Chandra Sekhar said the city police were taken by surprise as the company and the NHAI closed the service road, without any prior intimation to the police.

“The NHAI did not give us prior information. We would have made alternative arrangements if we been informed earlier,” he said. A notice would be issued to the NHAI in this regard, he said. The police diverted the vehicles plying between Talapady and Pumpwell at Jeppinamogaru to the narrow Jeppinamogaru-Morgans Gate stretch.