Adilabad: Potholed National Highway 44 offers rough ride for motorists

Heavy rains left the highway with potholes for almost every 100 metres on the stretch, making the journey tough for the motorists and contributing to road mishaps.

Adilabad: Potholes caused by heavy rains on the National Highway 44 connecting Kanyakumari with Kashmir, passing through Nirmal and Adilabad districts are causing inconvenience to motorists.

Formerly known as NH 7, India’s longest highway 44 enters Nirmal district at Soan mandal centre, with the stretch through the district ending at Dollara village in Jainath mandal of Adilabad district, spanning a distance of 115 kilometres in the two districts. It has toll plazas at Neradigonda and sees movement of hundreds of both passenger and goods vehicles travel every day.

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The highway was damaged by heavy rains that occurred in the last week of July. It now has potholes for almost every 100 metres on the stretch, making the journey tough for the motorists and contributing to road accidents. Due to the potholes, it is taking more time than normal to reach their destinations for the motorists.

“Potholes can be found all along the highway from Nirmal to Adilabad. You have to be extra careful while riding your vehicles. It is taking at least 30 minutes more than usual to cover 30 km on the pothole-riddled road. Travelling on this highway is nothing short of a nightmare,” Dr Nageshwar Reddy from Nirmal said.

Motorists said that they were registering a significant dip in mileage of vehicles due to the potholes, causing a financial burden. They stated that the battered highway turned dangerous. They regretted that they were experiencing body pains if they travelled on the bumpy road for a long distance.

Meanwhile, police officials said that they were planning to put up boards on the highway to caution motorists about the potholes. They opined that the road, damaged by rains, could sometimes contribute to road accidents. Both the motorists and police requested the officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to take steps to repair the road at the earliest.

Officials of the NHAI said that steps were being taken to repair the highway. Teams were formed to identify the damages caused by the rains and to fill the potholes with hot-mix material. It was learnt that due to unavailability of hot-mix material, the repairing of potholes was getting delayed.