Mangaluru: After protests Surathkal toll plaza defers toll collection from local vehicles

coastaldigest.com web desk
February 28, 2019

Mangaluru, Feb 28: Following protests from locals and request from Member of Parliament Nalin Kumar Kateel, the contractor at the National Highway Authority of India's (NHAI) toll plaza at Surathkal has decided to defer collection of toll for local vehicles with registration number KA 19 (local vehicles).

Messrs Keshav Agarwal, the new firm operating the toll plaza in Surathkal since November 2018, had announced collection of toll from local vehicles from Friday.

The firm had said that it will incur a loss of ₹ 3 lakh per day if it did not collect toll from local vehicles.

Protests were held on Thursday near the Surathkal toll plaza and near the office of the Deputy Commissioner against the decision of the agency.

Convenor of Nagarika Horata Samiti, Surathkal, Muneer Katipalla, said that residents are firm on their demand for scrapping the toll plaza at Surathkal. The NHAI had decided to merge the toll plaza with the one in Hejamady and this has not been acted upon till date. “Till completion of this process, we do not want toll to be collected from local vehicles,” he said in his speech at the protest in Surathkal.

Chief Executive Officer of Panambur Beach Toursim Project Yatish Baikampady, president of Kanara Small Scale Industries Association Gaurav Hegde and others made the same demand during their protest near the office of the Deputy Commissioner.

After a meeting of Vaibhav Dange, private secretary to the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, with NHAI and other officials, Mr. Kateel told reporters here on Thurday that the Union government will take a decision in a month on closing down the toll gate at Surathkal.

“Till such time, no toll should be collected from local vehicles,” he said.

Regional Officer of NHAI, Bengaluru, R.K. Suryawanshi, said that there are complications in merging the NHAI toll plaza in Surathkal with the one in Hejmady as the two projects have been taken up by different companies.

“In the meeting on Thursday it was proposed to merge the Surathkal toll plaza with the NHAI toll plaza in Brahmarakudlu (near B.C. Road),” he added. Mr. Suryawanshi said that accordingly a proposal will be placed by the NHAI before the Union government, which will then take a decision.

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News Network
May 5,2020

Bengaluru, May 5: A 62-year-old woman from Vijayapura succumbed to coronavirus infection on Tuesday, taking the COVID-19 death toll in Karnataka to 28, a health official said.

The state has registered eight more COVID-19 cases in the past 19 hours, increasing the count of such cases to 659, the official added.

"Positive case 640, 62-year-old female resident of Vijayapura died on Tuesday due to cardiac arrest," the health official said.

Admitted to a designated hospital''s ICU on Sunday, the woman was also suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Bronchial Asthma (BA) and complained of breathlessness.

Among the eight fresh cases that emerged in the state, four were contacts of earlier cases, two with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and one with travel history to Uttarakhand.

The health department is also tracing the contact history of a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru Urban.

Incidentally, no new cases emerged from Davangere as 22 cases rocked the district on Monday.

Among the new cases, Bengaluru Urban contributed 3, followed by Bagalkote, 2, Ballari, Dakshina Kannada and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada, 1 each.

Of the new cases, six are men and two women.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 7,2020

Mangaluru/Udupi, Jul 7: Coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi crossed 100 plus Covid19 positive cases mark again on Tuesday, after slipping to double digit cases for a day on Monday. While Dakshina Kannada accounted for 83 of these cases and one death, Udupi tallied 28 fresh cases taking the combined tally of new cases to 111.

DK stood second behind Bengaluru Urban that recorded 800 out of 1,498 new cases that the state recorded for the day.

In all, 48 primary contacts testing positive led DK district’s spurt of 83 cases, Sindhu B Rupesh, deputy commissioner, said. Influenza like illness (ILI) cases accounted for 20 of the 83 cases, one each were diagnosed with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and from pre-surgery sample collected before delivery, two had history of inter-district travel, three each were cases of random, pre-surgery samples and source of infection being traced.

A 65-year-old male from Moodbidri who had co-morbid conditions including diabetes, pneumonia and heart ailment succumbed to the pandemic during the day. He was admitted for treatment at a private hospital on July 3. With this, the death toll due to coronavirus in DK district rose to 26 and two of them are due to non-Covid reasons including a case each of suicide and a person succumbing to liver cirrhosis and they tested positive post death.

G Jagadeesha, deputy commissioner, Udupi district said the 28 new cases took the total positive cases in Udupi to 1390. With 1182 patients discharged and three deaths, Udupi as on date has 205 active cases. Those who tested positive include KSRTC driver who travelled to Bengaluru, vegetable vendor at Adi Udupi market and people with travel history to Tumakuru, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Dubai and two even from DK and rest primary contacts, DC said.

Health authorities in DK district also discharged 99 patients during the day to keep their active cases tally at 650. The two districts combined have 855 active cases as on date. As per revised protocol issued by the department of health and family welfare, the district administration also permitted 28 patients with mild symptoms to undergo home isolation while the rest are being treated either at private hospitals or at the designated Covid19 hospital for DK.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 4: With details of the Bengaluru links of the Covid-19-positive patient from Hyderabad emerging, state health authorities on Tuesday got down to tracking any infection trail he may have left behind before heading home.

Schools from southeast Bengaluru asked parents to send students with masks and hand sanitizers or keep them at home if they had fever. Medical shops in Bengaluru reported panic buying of masks and hand sanitizers.

Two persons with no symptoms — the Hyderabad man’s flatmate in city, and a colleague — reported at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases and put under watch at the isolation ward. Their test results are expected on Wednesday.

The authorities tracked down 71 people who had come in contact with the Hyderabad man and put them under surveillance. The 24-year-old techie had travelled to Dubai for work on February 15 and returned to Bengaluru on February 20. He attended work on February 20 and 21 before taking a bus to Hyderabad. His flat has been sealed for sanitizing.

According to Telangana officials, at least 36 of the 88 people who came in contact with the techie are showing some symptoms of Covid-19.

Contrary to reports, the infected person was not tested at the KIA since guidelines don’t say flyers from Dubai must be screened. WHO guidelines say identification of the infected person should not be revealed. However, WhatsApp groups were flooded with messages on where the infected person lived and details of his flatmate.

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