Citizens see no change in condition of roads

Citizens see no change in condition of roads
The Hindu

BANGALORE, SEPT. 14. With five days left for the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BMP) self-proclaimed deadline of September 19 to fill all potholes in the city, citizens are wondering whether the civic body could keep its word.

Though BMP officials claim that work on filling the potholes has started and over 9,000 have been filled so far, the citizens, especially those in the western parts of the city, feel there is no visible change. Even stretches on prominent roads have dangerous potholes.

"It's the same exercise every year. Potholes and craters appear every time it rains and all that the BMP does is conduct surveys and announce deadlines. What we want to know is how the roads that have been recently asphalted get damaged so soon," Ahmed Faraz, a software engineer, asked.

`Rain, the reason'

This time the BMP has identified over 16,000 potholes. "This year we have received continuous and heavy rainfall between June and August. That's why the road surface has been weakened and potholes have appeared," the BMP Engineer-in-Chief, Ramegowda, said.

He asserted that the potholes had not appeared on the roads that were asphalted recently. "We asphalted over 1,000 km of roads three years ago and these roads have been damaged the most, especially in areas where there is heavy vehicle movement," he said

Bond scheme

The BMP strengthened 270 km of arterial roads under the municipal bond scheme in 1998 at a cost of Rs. 231 crores. The scheme was originally planned to be implemented at a cost of Rs. 125 crores. While the cost escalated, the promise that roads upgraded under this scheme would not need repairs for the next seven years proved false.

This year 1,000 km more will be upgraded with assistance from the World Bank.

And, now the BMP is also planning to outsource the maintenance of roads at a cost of Rs. 14.6 crores.

Funds for each ward

Mr. Ramegowda said the BMP's 800 gangmen were at the job of filling potholes. "We have taken up work on a war footing. Each ward has been allocated Rs. 1.5 crores for road repairs and we will complete filling all the identified potholes by September 19," he added.

"But after that, another spell of rain and the potholes will be back again," Mr. Faraz added.