Tale of two ROADS

ale of two ROADS
Road Maintenance Has Never Been BBMP’s Strong Point, And That’s Quite Evident From These Stories
Aarthi R | TNN


Over the past few weeks, the city has seen a lot of road maintenance. While the works offer some muchneeded respite for residents, considering the poor condition of many roads, it has also been a case of too fast and too poor to last long.
As residents voice their concerns over what they claim is shoddy work, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) maintains that the pending categorization of roads — critical for implementation of works — is the stumbling block.
Residents of two areas speak out on road development works taken up in their neighbourhoods by BBMP in October. The issues are specific but also, to a great extent, reflect the general problem.
Kaggadasapura Main Road
BBMP started road-laying work on Kaggadaspura Main Road in Vignan Nagar after about 7 years. According to Ganesh, who works in an IT company, a resident of the area, the process was completed on October 31 at 10 am. The work on laying this nearly 2-km stretch was done in 1.5 days. “The work on laying the road was too fast and of too poor a quality... so bad that it may last only for a week,’’ he says.
He also states that the entire road was dug 2 feet deep for no apparent reason. The basic ground work has been on for years now. BBMP had started the digging work as early as May 18 but road-laying work was done just over a day, point out residents.
Pai Layout, 1st Main Road
The actual pothole-filling work here was done on Oct. 3. The preparation started a month before that — taking bits of roads in parts and leaving large gaps along the stretch. About 30 pothole patches were filled on the same day.
The northern end of the 1st Main Road — starting from the Old Madras Road Junction — has heavy traffic compared to the southern end.
“The patch-filling work on this portion collapsed in just two days, exposing the earlier pothole below. And this has expanded since then,’’ says Ms Thomas (75), a resident of the area, who has been highlighting this problem in the media as well as taking up the issue with the authorities.
According to the residents, the work was done on a day when the patches were waterlogged due to the heavy rain the previous night. There was no supervision of the work at the crucial stage and engineers were seen on the spot only when work started. They allege that even when the work was in progress, traffic was allowed without any alternative arrangement.
Earlier, under the K R Puram CMC, the first maintenance work that residents remember — ever since it was moved into Mahadevapura limits of the BBMP — was in February 2006 for the laying of a concrete channel for water from the Benniganahalli lake to flow down the drain.
‘CATEGORIZATION IS KEY’
According to K S Krishna Reddy, BBMP chief engineer (major roads), one of the main problems with roads in newly added BBMP areas is that they are yet to be categorized and much of road maintenance depends on this. Road categorization is expected to be complete in the next two months. “After this, we should be able to give roads the right treatment,’’ he said, adding that until then, maintenance would be done by zonal officers.
As for the Kaggadaspura Main Road, only 1.5 km of the 5-km stretch has been tackled so far. Work was delayed due to laying of water lines. The water supply board had taken over the road for over six months. “There will be no compromise on quality and work at every stage is being inspected,’’ he told TOI.