State of the Roads: Corporators, officials in blame game

Disgusting is too mild a word to describe the state of affairs

Roads: Corporators, officials in blame game
The Hindu

BANGALORE, SEPT. 13. Even a deadline from the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, has not deterred the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) authorities from holding back files (related to road repairs).

Last week, the Chief Minister had set a three-day deadline to the BMP for filling potholes and repairing roads. A file pertaining to the outsourcing of road maintenance by the civic body has been passed around for the last four months and is yet to be approved by the BMP Council.

While the BMP officials blame the Standing Committee on Works for not clearing the file, sources in the committee say that the file was sent to the council section but was not placed for approval.

`Negotiations' on

As a result, the outsourcing of road maintenance proposed to be taken up at a cost of Rs. 14.6 crore for three years has been delayed. As per rules, no proposal can be implemented unless the Council approves it.

Sources in the BMP alleged that the file was being held up at various levels on the pretext of "negotiations" with the agencies that bagged the contract.

The former BMP Commissioner, M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy, announced last June that the civic body planned to outsource maintenance of 2,000 km. of roads that were asphalted in the last three years.

Tenders for the project were called in October and finalised in December. "Though the file comprising details of 12 maintenance packages was sent to the Works Committee in January 2004, the committee kept it in abeyance till last month," a senior BMP official told The Hindu on Monday.

He said had the Council approved the subject, the BMP would have complied with the three-day deadline given by the Chief Minister to fill all potholes.

No consensus

It was only after the Commissioner, K. Jothiramalingam, requested the committee members and the Mayor, P.R. Ramesh, to clear the file that it was sent to the Council section in the last week of August.

But it was returned to the committee as there was no consensus among members of the Congress on approving the subject, the sources said.

When contacted, the Mayor blamed the Works Committee for holding up the file and said the subject would be taken up at the next Council meeting.

Each of the 12 maintenance packages includes pothole filling, road-cutting and restoration, removal of debris, cleaning of road-side drains, painting of road name boards, removing silt from shoulder drains, and levelling of the pavements.

According to the contract conditions, the contractors should survey the roads every week and take up repairs regularly.

The BMP will pay over Rs. 45,000 annually for maintenance of every kilometre of road.