In tune with the State government's move towards white topping roads, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has approved tenders for white topping 29 roads and six major junctions totalling to a length of 93.47 km at a cost of ₹723.71 crore. For motorists, this will be mean smooth roads, but citizens remain sceptical given the deteriorating condition of roads every monsoon.
Work is expected to begin in the second week of October simultaneously on multiple roads, and add to the traffic chaos across the city.
“BBMP has set a one-year deadline for completion of works on the 29 roads. We have split the work and given tenders to two firms so that the project starts simultaneously and is finished on time,” said K.T. Nagaraj, Chief Engineer, Projects, BBMP.
All roads will be provided with service ducts on either side for optic fibre cables and power cables. However, sewage and water lines will not be shifted, sources said.
White-topping is an overlay of Portland cement concrete layer over the existing asphalt layer on the road. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and City Development Minister K.J. George are passionate votaries of the technology. Recently, Mr. Siddaramaiah had said that he would like to see roads in the city to be white-topped.
For now, however, sections on major roads like Outer Ring Road, Mysuru Road, Brigade Road, Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Sarjapur Road and Tumakuru Road will be revamped.
This will be the biggest white-topping project in the city to date.
Bengaluru City Traffic Police, who have given their go-ahead for the works, said that though the project will disrupt traffic in the short run, white topping of roads is better since it provides a pothole-free ride, once completed. “We cannot block the roads. Work will be taken up on one lane while traffic will be allowed on the opposite lane,” said R. Hitendra, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic). He added that they would like the BBMP to press more paver machines into action to speed up the process.
