Tired of pothole-riddled roads in the city? Ever wondered why the one km stretch of Hosur Road between Ayyappa Temple and Madiwala has no potholes? The stretch was white-topped (concrete) in 2010 and has a life span of around 30 years.
The project to white-top major radial roads never took off even though the pilot was successful.
Essentially, white-topping is covering the existing bitumen layer with a concrete slab. The technology has been adopted on a section of NICE Road.
The project is getting a fresh look following Hyderabad, Chennai and the new city of Amaravathi opting for white-topped roads. “The only roads that remained motorable and were least damaged during the recent floods in Chennai were the white-topped ones in Velachery and Alwarpet. The new city of Amaravathi has gone the full hog and opted for white-top technology for all its roads,” said R.K. Mishra of Centre for Smart Cities, who has proposed reviving white-topped roads in the city. His report is being examined by the Urban Development Department and civic agencies.
T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, Secretary, Urban Development Department, said that the BBMP had also proposed white-topping major radial roads, including Ballari Road, Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Sarjapur Road, Old Airport Road.
“Though the cost of white-topping is almost double that of asphalting a road with bitumen, we need to evaluate the cost over the whole lifecycle,” said Mr. Vijay Bhaskar.
Experts argue that white-topped roads will eliminate the annual cycle of redoing roads and filling potholes.
