Torrent exposes poor quality of roads in B’lore

Torrent exposes poor quality of roads in B’lore
Deccan herald

A road should have a certain thickness and proper elevation at the centre to ensure water flows into the drainage system.

Bangalore roads are turning from bad to worse. The impact of the record-breaking torrential rains are already visible. The Bangalore’s 5,000 km of roads, including 275 km of main arterial roads and 250 km of minor arterial roads are deteriorating, creating pot-holes and turning pot-holes into craters.

Expert and advisor to Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) M N Srihari attributes the collapse to -- poor quality of construction, inferior quality raw materials used, and improper field investigations.

“A road should have a required thickness (it depends on the traffic load and repetitiveness) and proper chamber (the elevation at the centre of the road to ensure water flows into the drainage system). Also, there should be a proper drainage system along the roads. Otherwise, the water spills over on to the roads and damages the surface. Normally, the roads should have a longevity of 8 to 10 years. But here, they start withering in one year due the lack of the above features,” said Sreehari.

The pot-holes which have been filled up by the BMP are resurfacing. “The pot-holes should be filled up scientifically and technically. The potholes are filled up with brick, stone, mud or some material. Hence, the damage,” pointed out Sreehari.

Bangaloreans already crying foul against the crumbling infrastructure, have to put up with the worsened situation in the coming days.