Potholes vanish, smiles surface

Four days ago, it looked like the road to perdition; today, its horrific potholes and craters are being filled up and asphalted on a war footing by BBMP. And who knows, if all goes well, it may even be the envy of the city’s more ‘elite’ roads.

Bangalore Mirror had on Sept 16 highlighted the pathetic condition of B V K Iyengar Road, the city’s retail hub, and the traders’ anger at the inaction of the civic authorities. In fact, whenever it rained, commuting on the road took on the nature of a tryst with danger.

According to residents, the repair work started on the very day the report was published. The filling and asphalting have been completed till Chickpet circle, while work is yet to start on Arcot Sreenivasachar Road.

When we revisited the area, the same residents who had vented their pent-up anger at the civic agency were a relieved and smiling lot. Lokesh, a hosiery dealer, was elated to see our reporter once again. “Please highlight more such problems,” he said, while reiterating that an area which pays the highest amount of sales tax to the state government had remained neglected till this paper took up the issue.

V Shankar, a shop-keeper, was delighted to find that the large pothole in front of his shop was filled up. “When it used to rain, customers found it quite a task to come inside. Now, they won’t have any problems,” he said.

H S Somnath, an advocate, said, “There should be a permanent solution, not a temporary one. I am sure that once again, the road will start to wear out. Anyway, the road is repaired and we are quite happy.”