BBMP does damage control

BBMP does damage control
TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Where is the crater on Richmond Road flyover? On Thursday, TOI published the picture of a huge gaping hole on the flyover which had BBMP men at work instantly. By evening, the crater was filled. Will the BBMP call this too “an old photograph”, as it did in a note about our photographs of Rest House Crescent Road?
While citizens have responded with positive feedback over the last two days to our Crumbling Roads campaign, the BBMP in a rather smug way, continues to say all is well with the state of roads. This, even as its workers have been repairing roads we have been pointing out.
On Wednesday, the BBMP engineer-in-chief A K Gopalaswamy tried to dismiss the campaign stating that the pictures published are old. All he has to do is take a walk along Vittal Mallya Road which continues to be in deplorable shape. The rough track on Rest House Crescent saw a little work after its pathetic plight was featured in the campaign. A huge crater on Sankey Road near the CM’s home-office was also repaired, after TOI carried a front-page photograph of the bad condition.
Also, the BBMP gave TOI the amount spent on road repair work, which is quite small compared to the whopping sum spent on capital works, which includes construction, maintenance, etc.
Meanwhile, the BBMP Engineers Association claimed that roads are laid as per the Indian Road Congress standards — two layers for relaying and four layers for new road construction. The road work is not only the responsibility of the engineers but also private consultants and technical advisers appointed to monitor quality of construction. The BBMP spends an estimated Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.2 crore per km with all quality checks.
So, the question is: If such standards are maintained, why don’t Bangalore’s roads last longer?