BCC hits the road with big dreams

BCC hits the road with big dreams
Tenders Finalised For 900-Km Road-Laying Work
Times of India

Bangalore: It seems city’s dream to have roads sans potholes and patches is finally taking shape. The Bangalore City Corporation is waiting for the rain to dry up to put its best foot forward and wrap up once and for all the complaint book of city roads.

Following chief minister Dharam Singh’s diktat that all road works should be taken up after November 15, the BCC has finalised tenders for 900-km-road-laying work. Being a little quality-conscious this time, the civic body is calling package contractors and engineers for a meeting between November 16 and 20 to identify 40% of heavy traffic stretches, where roads will have a mixture of plastic, BCC commissioner K. Jothiramalingam told The Times of India. “Road mixed with plastic has proven to be strong and durable.’’

Works will be taken up in the first week of December and go on till May 2005 when the next monsoon season begins. The BCC has for the first time outsourced maintenance of 2,000 km roads in Bangalore for a period of three years. The 900-km road being taken up for relaying will also be outsourced. Maintenance includes filling up potholes, cleaning up side drain, pruning tree branches and repairing footpath slabs.

The BCC will involve selected local citizens in the neighbourhood areas or NGOs for overseeing works undertaken by contractors. Reputed agencies like Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Bangalore University will also be roped in to monitor quality, Jothiramalingam said.

The BCC will introduce a pavement condition index (PCI) on 250 km road stretch with the help of BU. The roads, mainly arterial and sub-arterial, will be given a rating on a scale between 1 and 10. If the road is rated between 8 and 10, the road is termed very good, 6-8 good, 4-6 satisfactory, while 2-4 will be bad and 2-0 worst. The idea is to take up repairing as soon as the roads fall under the 4-6 bracket.

Jothiramalingam said the BCC has told Bescom and BWSSB to intimate them at least one year in advance on road-digging. The BCC is also examining a proposal to ask civic agencies to dig pavements instead of roads.

Looks like another fantastic idea well designed on paper. Hope it doesn’t remain so.

THE ROAD MAP

•Repairing/relaying of roads from first week of December.
•BCC to outsource of 2,000 km of roads for a period of three years.
•Pavement Condition Index to be introduced to rate 250 km of arterial and sub-arterial roads on a scale of 1 to 10.
•BCC to discourage road digging, may ask agencies to dig pavements instead.