Rains delay road works yet again

Rains delay road works yet again
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: It’s raining excuses again. Thanks to the downpour in the last two days, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has found a good alibi for bad roads and indifferent maintenance.

Civic works have already been bogged down by the unholy nexus between contractors, officials and politicians. Relief works undertaken to repair last year’s monsoon damage had remained affected.

Untimely rains could now provide a fresh set of excuses for officials and plenty of photo ops for politicians. Four trees fell during Sunday night’s rains, in Mathikere, Gayathrinagar and Cubbon Park.

Houses and roads were flooded in Chickalalbagh, Avalhalli, Yediyur, Padmanabhanagar, Banashankari III stage, Srinagar, Jayangar 9th and I Blocks, Vinayakanagar, N S Palya and Mico Layout.

The 54.1 mm rainfall played havoc in the Vrishabhavathy valley and a bus was washed off into a canal in Nayandahalli. Lamp posts snapped in HMT Layout and the walls of many houses collapsed in Peenya.

However, the CMC area was the worst hit as over 350 houses in Bhadrappa Layout in Byatarayanapura were flooded. The city also faced black outs. Airport Road, Vijaynagar, Mathikere, Peenya, Yeshwanthpur, Nagarabhavi, Hebbal, Malleswaram and parts of Jayanagar faced power shutdowns for hours.

The asphalting of roads damaged by last year’s monsoon was started partially only recently, but has been halted, said BMP engineer-in-chief Ramegowda. The 110 packages were delayed for over six months with the contractors’ lobby trying to dictate rates to the BMP.

“We cannot take up asphalting under wet conditions,” said Ramegowda. BJP leader in the BMP council A H Basavaraju alleged that the control rooms of the civic body had not been responsive to the crisis.

The control room staff did not even answer phone calls, he alleged.