City roads still dotted with potholes

City roads still dotted with potholes

The Hindu

BANGALORE, OCT. 1. The Mayor, P.R. Ramesh, recently announced that if potholes were found on city roads, the jurisdictional Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) engineers would be fined. But three days after the announcement, hundreds of potholes have remained uncovered and the Mayor is yet to initiate action against the engineers.

`Mere announcement'

Most of the prominent roads in the city have dangerous potholes even after the BMP's second self-proclaimed September 27 deadline ended. Sources in the BMP said the Mayor's warning to engineers was a "mere announcement."

"If the Mayor has to really initiate action against the officials, then nobody will be spared because almost all the wards have roads with potholes. Some of these potholes would have been created recently and some would have been missed during the drive," sources said.

Letter to Commissioner

When contacted, the Mayor said he had written to the BMP Commissioner, K. Jothiramalingam, on Thursday seeking an explanation on the potholes that remained even after the deadline ended.

"I have asked him to identify the engineers who have neglected their duties and issue show-cause notices to them. Action will be initiated after that," he said and added that he was not aware if the commissioner had identified the engineers. The engineers, on the other hand, said they had been doing their work.

"The potholes that can be seen now have either been created after we completed the drive or they are on roads that have been entrusted to the contractors for maintenance," an official said. But the roads have been outsourced for maintenance only last week. "So the engineers were waiting for the roads to be outsourced. The moment the contract was signed, they left the pothole work on them. This shows how the officials function," a senior corporator said.

For the record, potholes have been found on Bull Temple Road, K.R. Road, Vani Vilas Road, Koramangala 80 feet Road, Cunningham Road, Magadi Road entrance (near the Rajajinagar grade separator diversion), Mysore Road near Kengeri bus stop, near Town Hall, Seshadripuram, Paltform Road, Vyalikaval, HVR Layout in Govindrajnagar, and even in front of the BMP head office and Vidhana Soudha, near the General Post Office.