N H 17 NATIONAL HIGHWAY OF WOES KARWAR MANGALORE

It was early in October 2011 we decided to visit our aunt staying at Honavar, Karnataka. As travel by train alone was comfortable to traverse the distance we checked the web for availability of tickets for the onward and return journey.  We found that tickets were available only to Karwar from Thiruvananthapuram and back on the dates we proposed to travel. Though it was 100 KM from Karwar Railway Station to Honavar we opted for the arrangement out of sheer necessity.

It was midnight when the train halted at Karwar. Sadanand, auntie’s driver, was waiting for us at Karwar with her Maruti Omni. Though we had travelled between Karwar and Honavar several times we were in for a rude shock this time. Sadanand was negotiating the Omni through large craters on the road. We lost the number of times the vehicle landed in the craters with a sudden jerk throwing us off our seats. Unmindful of the hazards on the road Sadanand weaved his way through the craters and took us finally to auntie’s place at Honavar. We were happy when the ordeal ended and we thanked God for keeping us safe.  It was one of the toughest trips we have ever made and it took two days for our aching limbs to get back to shape. 

While at Honavar we paid a visit to Murdeshwar.    The beach and the facilities there were grand.  The journey was as bad as our trip from Karwar. Sadanand told us that the road from Karwar to Mangalore had been in  bad shape for a very long time. Repairs were inadequate.  Just as travel was harmful for travellers, the vehicles too encountered costly repairs.

As we related our experience on the road   to our friends at Honavar, they concurred with Sadanand. According to them NH 17 had become National Highway of  Woes as a result of the movement of trucks carrying Ore  from Goa to Mangalore Port and  total neglect by the authorities.  We responded that we at Kerala had always been considering that road conditions were very bad in our State. We were blaming the authorities for not carrying out repairs in time even as they were doing a good job in comparison with their Karnataka counterparts.

We thanked our stars that we were residents of Kerala where National Highways and all other roads were in a much better shape than NH 17 in Karnataka.