Stretch bears brunt of neglect

Stretch bears brunt of neglect
Aarthi R | TNN


It’s nobody’s baby, and it shows. A 150-metre stretch of road is paying the price of abject neglect when it comes to maintenance. Open to heavy traffic from schools, offices and adjoining industrial areas, this stretch was last tarred in hurried patches two years ago.
A major link to the Air Force Technical College (AFTC) and adjoining industrial areas, this part of S M Road (Subroto Mukherjee Road), from Jalahalli Cross right up to to the Ayyappa temple, is caught in administrative limbo.
On January 16, 2007, this road was transferred to BBMP limits. Prior to this, the areas on the right side of the road were under BBMP and the CMC took care of the areas on the left. However, both civic bodies have neglected this link road that lies bruised.
Even after the BBMP took over, there has been a delay in action due to the uncertainty over which division should handle it. After the BBMP’s west zone maintained it for two years, it was transferred to Dasarahalli division. Surprisingly, even long-time residents are not aware of the transfer of rights. But, they’re painfully aware of the potholes, many of which have slowly deepened far and wide into craters. The heavy rain over the past few months seems to have washed away most of the road, making it very difficult for vehicles to negotiate their way forward in the remaining space.
On rainy days, it’s very difficult to step into your house without taking in wet mud, says Rajesh K, who has been living in the Premier Grihalaxmi Apartments for the past eight years. Bouncing through the rain on these waterlogged puddles, he manages to reach home mostly on slushy feet. “Irrespective of who owns the road, we need to use this stretch to go to our schools and offices. Dropping my daughter to school that’s about 800 metres away takes more than 30 minutes now,” he says.
Mohan, another resident here for the last 15 years, says he has almost forgotten when he last saw the road complete. “The stretch from my house to the circle should take less than a minute but now it takes 15-20 minutes due to the bad road,” he says.
When asked about relief measures, BBMP officials said that the potholes would be filled up from Friday. Also, there are major plans to resurface the road but this would be possible only after the monsoon.