I anticipated the day’s drive to be stress free and smooth,
as I had done this stretch quite a few times in the past. I also decided to
leave later than is usual, at 5 am. Access to the highway NH48 was neither far
nor difficult. Normally it is a nightmare to leave a city because of poor sign
posting. However, nowadays with the assistance of navigation systems, that problem
has been more or less eliminated. I have seen terrible traffic snarls near the Khambatki
ghat, a mountain pass through the Sahyadri range on the NH4. Early in the morning
the pass is generally free.
The sight of the Suvarna Vidhan Soudha just off the highway
near Belgaum made me get out of the car to take in. Apparently the Vidhan Soudha
was built at a cost of nearly Rs. 500 crores to commemorate the Golden Jubilee
of Karnataka formation day. Belgaum district has been in the centre of a border
dispute between the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka since long. In order to
spike any further dispute the Karnataka Government undertook this extravaganza
by acquiring 127 acres of land from farmers. The question uppermost on most
minds is: Was it required to bleed the exchequer for one sitting of the
Assembly here every year? Is our democracy so devoid of accountability?
I was famished by the time I reached the Kamat Upachar outlet
beyond Sira at 3 pm. After fueling at the outlet beside the Upachar I had a
leisurely snack of dosa and coffee. It was just another 150 km to the Keys
Hotel on the Hosur Road. The transit from NH48 to NH44 via the NICE road was a beauty.
The bypass has considerably speeded up the movement from one link to the other.
Finally, just before 6 pm I reached the Keys Hotel and was lodged in a
comfortable room. The day spanned 882 km in under 12 hours of driving. Rains,
sometimes quite heavy, had slowed progress before noon. But the most irritating
factor was the 17 toll plazas I had to navigate by shelling out Rs. 1,111 as
toll fee. It is not the fee per se that is the irritant; it is suffering serpentine
queues and quite often some boorish car owners try to impress the toll clerk
with their ID to seek exemption from payment of toll fee. Why anyone should be
exempted from payment is beyond comprehension when all those who are exempted,
as per the list displayed at toll plazas, are those who are eligible for
reimbursement of expenses while on duty. If they are not on duty they must pay.
Anyway, the toll plazas must go, in the interest of saving fuel, time and
management cost.
However, the more important thing that occupied my
mind was that the fourth corner will come up tomorrow when I reach Kanyakumari.
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