Mangalore, April 28: The much awaited Sulthan Bathery hanging bridge is tottering. The hanging bridge construction is being transferred from the tourism ministry to the public works department where it is awaiting the green signal for continuation of ongoing activity.
Phalguni is a River which has its origins in the Western Ghats and drains itself in the Arabian Sea. There was a plan underfoot to get the river to be bridged from Sulthan Bathery in Mangalore. This was entirely left to the tourism ministry earlier, but now the tourism ministry has written a letter to the public works department to take over from the where position is.
As it was not felt proper to entrust a project involving budget of more than 12 crore rupees to the tourism department, the project was handed over to the public works department. The outcome of the discussion to date has been fruitless.
Phalguni River has to be crossed by boat near Boloor to move towards Thaneerbhavee beach, Sulthanbathery is a shorter distance to do so. There are more tourists arriving at Thaneerbhavee, they have to take a boat ride to reach there, but after 7.30pm the boat ferry is stopped. On road it will take 8kms more to reach the beach. The boatman takes the responsibility of ferrying the passengers and hemakes them wait for more than half an hour before he does his job. So there is a good deal of support for having a hanging bridge across.
Work amounting to 1 crore has been completed. On August 23rd 2010, green signal was given to a hanging bridge of 3 meters broad, 410 meters long outlay amounting to 5 crore rupees. B.S. Yediyurappa the then Chief Minister laid the foundation stone. The cost had since then gone up and work totalling to 12 crore was finished. Work amounting to 1 crore rupees was taken up by the labor contractors. The work was stopped when the contractors did not receive their payment. After the Government released 1 crore rupees the contractors were given their money.
The work was halted and arrangements are awaited for the PWD to take up the work in lieu of the tourism department.
