“Hale Kallu, Hosa Billu"

BCC leaves no stone unturned!
Times of India

Bangalore: Six years ago, when the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) ventured into multi-crore road works under the Municipal Bond Scheme, the city’s pavements were spruced up. But it was as shoddy as the road works and Bangaloreans witnessed how this project flushed Rs 225 crore down the drain.

Last year, when the BCC took up the junction improvement scheme — remodelling of 106 chaotic junctions — pavement improvement was also part of it. But the story repeated again.

Year after year, when the BCC takes up improvement of arterial roads, cleaning and repairing of pavements is given as much prominence as drain works. But the end result: broken pavements, undulating surfaces and potholes on pavements!

The city has five types of pavements in various shapes and sizes — interlocking blocks, stone slabs, cement pavements, Sira granite and tiled pavements. Though interlocking blocks are the inthing in the developed countries, these pavements last long only if the specified standards are adhered to.

“There is no policy in the BCC to look into the nittygritty of remodelling pavements. No scientific study has been done to ascertain what kind of pavements are required for a city like Bangalore, which has a highdensity pedestrian movement. One cannot stick to a uniform pattern for the entire city. Preference has to be given to central business districts,’’ BCC engineers said.

Huge piles of stone slabs dumped in the BCC backyard indicate how the BCC wastes funds. Though authorities claim that the stones will be polished and put to use in areas where there are no pavements, the fact will remain that the BCC would end up spending double the amount on polishing and cutting the stones and labour.

“Hale Kallu, Hosa Billu (Old stone, new bill),’’ is a well-known saying which mocks at the functioning of the BCC. The old stones will be cleaned and laid all over again and the contractors will claim fresh bills, hefty of course.

While cement pavements were talked about in the BCC two years ago, very few roads have these side-walks — Jayanagar and Basavangudi Post Office road. The concept died a natural death after the BCC switched over to interlocking blocks.