While many roads were remade and asphalted under the Nagarothana Scheme during 2016, most of them are being dug up this month.
Days after the civic body gave permission to a private company to dig up ECC Road in Whitefield just six months after it was laid, it has again permitted another company — a broadband service provider — to dig up the same stretch to lay cables.
This in violation of the civic body’s own rules that no road cutting will be allowed within an year of its asphalting. The Hindu had reported on the issue on January 25.
But it’s not jut ECC Road that has met this fate. Graphite India Road, one of the most critical arterial roads, has also been dug up near CMRIT College by another telecom service provider.
The road was asphalted less than six months ago, said Whitefield residents.
Motorists say that once dug up, the roads are rarely restored to their original condition. A case in point is Borewell Road, which provides connectivity to ITPL.
Five months since the BWSSB dug it up to lay an underground drainage line, the road is yet to be repaired.
Sumanth Reddy, a resident of Borewell Road, said that the digging began in September 2016. “Despite claims to have completed work, the digging is still on. This road has become a nightmare,” said Sumanth.
Pravir Bagrodia, a resident of ECC Road for nearly two decades, recalled how they had to fight for over six years for the road to be relaid only to see it being dug up in just a few months.
Whitefield residents had even made attempts to bring telecom service providers together to invest and lay service ducts in the roads that were being remade, but to no avail. As new TSPs enter the market, the same roads are now being dug up again, said Gautam Misra, another resident of the area.
R.K. Mishra, member, Technical Advisory Committee, BBMP and a resident of Whitefield, said that despite bringing it to the notice of BBMP commissioner and secretary, UDD, the civic body is continuing to dole out licences for road cutting, in contempt of the one-year lock in period. “The entire Whitefield seems to have been dug up. Commuting through the area has turned difficult again. It needs to be probed how the new TSPs are being given road cutting permits for the newly laid roads too,” he said.
BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said that he would take immediate measures to check road cutting permits for newly laid roads.
