Substandard roadwork comes to light at several places

Substandard roadwork comes to light at several places
The Hindu

Work is being taken up under the Karnataka Municipal Reforms Project

# Contractor claims to have completed 80 p.c. work
# BMP engineer says work on drain is yet to be done
# Citizens Welfare Association has written to Mayor and Commissioner


Bangalore: The ride from N.R. Square to Hosur Road junction, a 2.4-km stretch of road, is smooth at most places. There are small potholes that threaten to widen into big ones and there are depressions. But which road in Bangalore is not like that, right?

That, however, is not a good enough excuse if the road has to stand the Bangalore traffic and weather for the next 10 years.

The excuse especially does not hold water since the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is spending Rs. 90 lakh per kilometre on the road when it otherwise spends Rs. 13 lakh per kilometre on other roads.

It is also important to note that the road is one of the seven roads being reworked under the first phase of the Karnataka Municipal Reforms Project (KMRP), funded by the World Bank.

But work on this road shows that it has not been done as per the stipulated standards. Even though, K.N.R. Constructions, the agency contracted for the job, claims to have "completed 80 per cent work" on the road, instances of shoddy work are evident.

Next to K.H. Road flyover, only 400 metres of the road have been asphalted.

The other side of the road going towards Lalbagh has not even been asphalted. Asked why, Pani of K.N.R. Constructions said, "A mechanical power breakdown caused us to stop the work at that place. We will take up the work in a week." But Siddegowda, executive engineer of the BMP, said that work was stopped as drainage work needed to be done in the area.

On Langford Road, the new footpaths are already showing cracks as they have not been cemented properly.

At some places, the road has not been asphalted up to the footpath.

Every road must have a camber — that is the road should be slightly elevated at the centre and slope towards the footpath on both sides so that rainwater flows through outlets on the footpath.

But depressions are quite evident at different points on the road. This means that water would remain stagnant when it rains and would not flow easily into the drains.

Mr. Siddegowda, however, insists that it is to facilitate water flow into the drains. The Citizens Welfare Association of Richmond Town and Langford Town has brought to the notice of the Mayor and BMP Commissioner several irregularities in the work.

The association members observed the work being done on the road and have earned a special mention in the Captain Raja Rao Committee report.

In their letter to the Mayor, the association claims that the binding material (which holds two layers of tar together) was not uniformly sprayed and that the potholes and depressions were not filled before the asphalting. The association has also said that instead of the 40 mm of tar, only 20 mm was laid from Langford Road to Hosur Road junction.

Mr. Pani insisted, "all work on the stretch from N.R. Square to Laskar Hosur Road has been done except the one next to the flyover." Mr. Siddegowda said, "Rs. 74 lakh worth of works have been done." But a reality check of the road leaves one wondering.