No digging roads

No digging roads
None Can Touch Specified Stretches; BMP Nod Must
The Times of India

Bangalore: Is there any hope at all for our roads? For the third time in a row, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has come out with a protocol against road digging and cutting, which translates to, no digging.

Spurred by the ‘thrombosis on roads’ unleashed by optic fibre cable companies (OFCs), the BMP, with immediate effect, will be strict with any agency tampering with roads. The process has already been galvanised — BWSSB has been slapped with a fine of Rs 10 lakh for messing up St Mark’s Road.

Plus there will be a formal resolution banning cutting and digging on specified stretches across the city, for 140 km, identified under the World Bank project.

Stringent norms
Cutting and opening the road will be allowed after prior permission, only on Saturdays and Sundays.

The opening and filling operations have to be completed the same day and under no circumstances should the open portion be left open without re-filling.

For the record, there was a committment made by former commissioner Ashok Dalwai on road maintenance by introducing the Road Opening and Restoration Protocol which was supposed to penalise agencies and cancel licences.

Did the protocol die a premature death? BMP officials say that the restoration protocol did not have provisions for technical aspects and that the new norms have corrected this anomaly. The whole of 2005 has seen various agencies — OFCs, service providers — cough up whopping amounts to the tune of Rs 70 lakh. To add to this, from now onwards agencies will be required to give in a deposit amount of Rs 25,000 before even touching any road.



“The main reason these companies dig is for laying cables. We will be providing ducts which rules out the need for digging and cutting of any sort,’’ explains BMP commissioner K Jothiramalingam.

Will at least this give us those dreamt-of smooth roads?