The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) claims that potholes on most of the major roads have been fixed barring a few, and the civic body will now focus on inner roads.
The number of complaints, too, has reduced. Sourabh Kumar, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Pothole Raja, said over the past one month the number of requests they receive for filling potholes has dropped drastically. “A lot of work has been done by the BBMP in the past few months. However, since Bengaluru has around 14,000 km of roads with 1,400 km of major roads, filling all the potholes in the city is impossible as they occur time and again,” he said.
However, major like J.C. Road and a few stretches on Old Madras Road and on Sampige Road in Malleswaram are yet to be fixed.
Traders on Kumbaragundi Road, which runs parallel to J.C. Road, say the road has craters. “There is heavy vehicular movement here because of godowns. This has led to deterioration of the road,” said a vendor.
On Old Madras Road, it’s not potholes but manholes that are the problem. “The lids of manholes are on the road and they are uneven. This is a problem across the city,” said Prakash B. a resident of Benniganahalli and a regular user of OMR.
BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar told The Hindu that the BBMP would now concentrate on filling potholes on inner roads. “We are doing it step by step. Filling potholes is a continuous activity and we will fill them as soon as they appear,” he said.
Mr. Kumar on Tuesday issued a circular to senior officials of the civic body, including special commissioners, joint commissioners and chief engineers, directing them to compulsorily inspect civic related works under their jurisdiction in the city from 6 a.m.
The circular directs officials to inspect and report works and developments related to potholes, road repair works, median repair works, maintenance of gardens and parks, garbage disposal, clearance of construction and debris (C&D) waste, and other civic works.
BBMP engineers had identified as many as 10,656 potholes across the city, and at last count had filled over 9,914 of them.
