While Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had in the first week of November assured that all potholes in the city would be filled by November 15, the civic body has once again missed the deadline. Officials said rain in the city further delayed the work to fill the potholes.
On October 30, BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath had told the media that all the potholes would be filled by November 5. The deadline was pushed to November 15 by the BBMP.
However, keeping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bengaluru on November 12 in mind, the civic body had managed to asphalt stretches in Majestic and Gubbi Thotadappa road areas. “We have filled 29,517 potholes till now and over 2,000 potholes are still left to be filled. Due to rain in recent days, there were delays in filling the potholes. The remaining identified potholes will be filled soon,” a BBMP official said.
Recently, the Karnataka High Court had directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to inspect the pothole filling and road repair works in the city.
Meanwhile, the Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP) Tuesday alleged shoddy execution of work on the New Thippasandra Market Road. The BBMP is currently laying roads in the 5th Cross and Market Road of New Thippasandra.
In a statement, the party said, “The road-laying process involves a step-by-step procedure. Simply put, firstly, the ground is cleaned to remove all the loose materials. Next, hot bitumen is filled with jelly stones of different sizes and later the roller is run to settle it. Further, regular bitumen is laid. This helps the layers to bind well, thus resisting the entry of water. However, the BBMP does not follow this procedure. In a hurry to finish the work and get paid, the officers and contractors go hand in glove, leaving the work in shambles.”
Lalithamba B V, Core Working Group Member of BNP, said, “In the absence of local elected representatives, MLAs have taken over all the civic works in the city. There is absolutely no control over the usage of money and the projects implemented in different wards. Such anarchy results in low-quality work, leading to poor infrastructure.”
A local resident, Muniraju, said, “BBMP fails to implement the basic rule of cleaning the ground of dust, grass and organic material before putting in the jelly stones and other materials. An uncleaned base will affect the binding of the rest of the layers. The black-top roads have a 10-year lifespan. However, the roads laid by the BBMP develop potholes in no time and become a death trap for commuters. This is because no one bothers to check if the road works meet the prescribed standards. With rampant corruption and commissions, the quality of work executed is compromised and as a result, the citizens are suffering.”
Dhananjay Bala, a resident of Thippasandra, said, “We are paying taxes regularly and honestly. But the wait for good roads only seems to be getting longer for us. The roads are of low quality, they develop potholes very easily and we have to risk our lives to travel on these roads. Roads riddled with potholes turn into death traps. Why should citizens suffer after paying regular taxes?”
