Pothole-marked roads to be fixed

Pothole-marked roads to be fixed
Deccan Herald

The top priority for the authorities right now is to drain out the water. Then the roads have to dry out. Repair work can follow only later.

Nearly 700 km long stretches of rain-battered roads in Bangalore City are in for upgradation. But first the sun must shine. “It has to get a little sunny,” is how a civic official put it.

The top priority for the authorities right now is to drain out the water. Then the roads have to dry out. Repair work can follow only later. It will begin with patch work, followed by resurfacing and so on, highly placed officials in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) explained on Sunday.

It will be two more days before water is drained out, the officials said, reiterating that the problem lies not with drains within BMP limits but those under CMCs.

A report on the damages suffered and the order of priority in the works to be taken up immediately has been submitted by the BMP to the Urban Development Department.

“Inspection of the damage wreaked by the rain was carried out jointly with Urban Development Department officials,” sources said.

A special package is slated for roads identified as “falling under the high density corridor”. Roads in parts of Koramangala and industrial areas of Yeshwanthpur, Peenya, Timber Yard etc, figure in it, the sources said.

The nearly 700-km stretches of roads identified include the 140-km-stretche to be improved with World Bank aid, 250-kms of arterial roads and 300-kms of local or feeder roads. In the local roads category, all roads measuring 4 metres and less in width shall be cemented.

Meanwhile, the immediate repair work is likely to further delay the total asphalting work that was pending in parts of the 27 wards which are referred as new wards.

The pending work reportedly amounts to 20 per cent of the over Rs 50 crore project. Civil works by BWSSB and others had delayed the repair work and the BMP had only recently a related complaint of cost escalation by contractors.

IN FOR A MAKEOVER

Airport Road, Sheshadri Road, Thimmaiah Road, Kamaraj Road, Cubbon Road, Jayamahal Road, Rajaram Mohan Roy Road, Margosa Road, Sampige Road, Hosur Road, Bellary Road and Ring Road in Bangalore South.