Where are all the potholes?

Where are all the potholes?

The Hindu

A challenge and a seeming response in Bangalore

# 300 calls received, but none meet conditions
# The funds will come from engineers' pay

Bangalore: Suddenly, Bangalore has no pothole worth its name left on some of its notorious roads. None on the 142 km of the city's total 4,000 km road network, at least.

Fed up with complaints, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) recently hit upon a `hole-proof idea.' After months of surveys and nocturnal expeditions to fill the spine-creaking craters on 117 roads, the BMP announced a competition for citizens to spot a pothole on identified stretches and win Rs.100 each time they do so.

Conditions applied. The pothole should be on the identified stretches. It should measure eight by eight inches with a depth of two inches.

The `spot-a-pothole' contest was conceived in order to sensitise engineers to the plight of vehicle users when they landed in a thud into a pothole, said officials.

And, what about the money for rewards? It does not come from the BMP's coffers. Stuck in the potholes are the zonal engineers. The money will be deducted from the salary of the zonal engineer concerned. The BMP, however, deposited a corpus of Rs 1.5 lakh in a nationalised bank before announcing the scheme.

Though the technical assistants authorised to verify the complaints have received over 300 calls from February 6 (the day the contest started) till Monday, there has not been a single prize-winning entry. None of the identified potholes had the right dimensions, or they were not on the specified stretches. All this in a city where one really has to hunt for a relatively smooth length of road — except on those used regularly by VVIPs.

Residents of certain suburbs, especially Koramangala, home to scores of software development companies and those employed by them, were surprised. Because, for visitors in this part of the city the landmarks pointed out are the huge craters. In some other neighbourhoods, local residents routinely caution visitors against using certain roads because they could break the suspension systems of their cars.

While the citizens are left wondering whether they should really step out with tapes and scales to measure the length, breadth and depth of the potholes they spot, the BMP appears elated over the `success' of the scheme. BMP Engineer-in-Chief Ramegowda said all complaints were being recorded seriously. "Because even if the complaints do not qualify for a prize, the information is being used to fill more potholes. We are on the job and within another 10 days we will add 100 km to the list of identified roads for the contest. The idea is to make the engineers accountable. Our aim is to ensure that worn-out tarred pits on the roads do not hinder smooth flow of traffic," he said.

Wags used to say some of Bangalore's roads had more craters than the moon's surface. If the BMP does go about its work earnestly, there may be no takers for a wager on this, soon.