With the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) going slow on the widening of Mysore Road, the woes of road users have multiplied with the civic authority leaving behind long stretches of pot-hole ridden roads for the motorists to endure.
The stretch between Muslim Burial Ground (just after the down ramp of Sirsi Circle Flyover) and Hosaguddadahalli has been the worst affected. Fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of the civic authority, residents of the surrounding area filled the potholes and craters with debris recently. However, their temporary measure soon created cesspools on the road, worsening the situation.
Once the vehicles moving towards Sirsi Circle cross Hosaguddadahalli, they start crawling as the traffic moves at a snail's pace till they reach the Muslim Burial Ground. Altaf Ahmed, a resident of Hosaguddadahalli, wondered why the palike has not speeded up the widening work. “They chop one tree this week, another after a fortnight and one more after a month. Later, they pull down some structures. Weeks thereafter, they take up work on the shoulder drains that goes on endlessly,” he lamented.
Manjunath R., a resident of the Azad Nagar, said it was more than six months since the road widening work started. “However, except chopping several huge trees and demolishing some buildings, the work does not appear to have progressed much,” he said. The worst affected are the pedestrians who have no way to walk from the Toll Gate to the Muslim Burial Ground, Mr. Manjunath pointed out. Added to the potholes, sewage flows in makeshift open drains magnifying the problems, he noted.
Rajanna, a BMTC bus driver, said that it requires at least 20 minutes negotiating the 500-metre stretch between Toll Gate and the Muslim Burial Ground. The two-lane road has now become single lane thanks to the widening process and is completely pothole-ridden, he rued. With this, not only the commuting time for people has increased, the crew miss at least two trips every day due to traffic snarls, he said.
