Karnataka: Atlast, Netravathi Bridge blessed with a suicide barrier

Manguluru: Karnataka state authorities have initiated works to prevent suicides on the Netravathi Bridge on NH-66. It has been one year for the officials to get a wakeup call after incident of Coffee Day founder VG Siddartha committed suicide by jumping off the bridge.

The bridge will get 8-feet-tall barrier that will be fixed on the retaining walls on either side of it in order to deter people from taking the extreme step. Barriers will also be erected at the median of the bridge that has a gap.

The bridge has earned the name of 'suicide spot' as many people jumped from it over the past years. Kankanady Police inspector Ashok confirmed that number of suicides on the spot has gone up. He said that it is difficult to provide exact numbers as dead bodies are fished out in areas coming under Pandeshwar or Ullal police station limits.

Police sources said that suicides at the spot increased in the last one year after Siddartha incident on June 30, 2019 that made it to the national headlines. This incident only made Manguluru citizens to demand for a suicide barrier. Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath took keen interest on the project.