Infrastructure delays continue despite government’s media hype

Infrastructure delays continue despite government’s media hype
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Even as the new government is making all the noise in the media about speeding up infrastructure work of the city, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is sitting on huge pile of proposals.

As the monsoon season is considered a non-working period, work is delayed by at least another six months and the new commissioner K Jairaj would have to face the challenge.

The roadwork promised to IT honchos last year are yet to see any substantial progress even after six months after the deadline.

The 16.36-km roads at a cost of Rs 22.54 crore was supposed to be completed by December last but even after a revised March deadline, the roads are not done and no asphalting can be taken up during rains.

Another 24.61 km of flood-damaged roads were promised to be repaired by a revised deadline of May but the Rs 35.30 crore project would again languish due to monsoon.

The story of asphalting of 1,000 km of bad roads in the city called Package II has been delayed due to a rift between the contractors and the BMP on rates of work. As a result, the Rs 173.81-crore works in 103 packages is still at tendering stage.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has no deadline for black topping these roads. Add to that waiting list another 350 km of city roads under zonal works at a cost of Rs 30 crore.

Bangalore Mahanagara Palike took up the 4.5-km Suranjandas Road under private public partnership with (Hindustan Aeronautic Limited) at a cost of Rs 8 crore and that too is complete but the progress is satisfactory as HAL is executing the work.

The much hyped up promise of the BMP to mitigate the flood fury by remodelling the storm water drains has gone awry as the 11 packages at a cost of Rs 530 crore has shown a dismal progress of 20 percent.

The city traffic too has no hope of easy movement, as RoB in Banasawadi at a cost of Rs 10.76 crore could not meet the April deadline.

Another near ITC factory at a cost of Rs 14 crore is yet to take off while Byappanahalli and Mathikere RoBs are yet to start work.

Similar is the plight of the road under bridges (RuB) in Frazer Town (Rs 2.5 crore), Cantonment (Rs 6.36 crore) and Khoday’s Circle (Rs 16 crore).

The added attraction in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike showcase is the 30 km Inner Core Ring Road at a cost of Rs 236 crore which is expected to connect Yeshwantpur junction - Karnataka Bhavan - Shivashankar Circle - Adugodi Junction - Ulsoor Lake - Jayamahal Road - Yeshwantpur junction.