Potholes are not the only problem

Over 67,000 sq mt ‘bad reaches’ identified

September 22, 2015 09:57 am | Updated 11:26 am IST - BENGALURU:

Elections and torrential rains in the last three months damaged the city’s roads.

Elections and torrential rains in the last three months damaged the city’s roads.

The BBMP has promised, yet again, to make the city ‘pothole free’ by October-end. However, potholes are not the only obstacles users of the city’s battered and bruised roads have to deal with. An estimated 67,309 sq mt have been identified as ‘bad reaches’.

Though the palike claims to have smoothened out most stretches, with just over 5,000 sq mt remaining to be repaired, no mention appears to have been made of taking care of these stretches on Monday.

Repairing these ‘bad reaches’ (worn out portions of roads, cracks on surfaces, material scraped out around speed breakers, sunken surfaces), mainly found at junctions, turns, speed breakers and around structures such as transformers, are admittedly more time consuming and difficult.

BBMP officials said while small stretches of bad reaches can be repaired using the pothole filling machine for quick results, longer stretches need more equipment and space. “The paver and truck need space. We would also have to block the lane to carry out the work,” a senior official said.

Though bad reaches in arterial roads have been repaired, work in other areas can only be taken up at night, he admitted.

Promises from the BBMP, apparently, re-appear as often as the potholes on the city’s roads. After a gaping pothole claimed the life of a software engineer last week, the civic body has set itself another deadline to make the city free of potholes. >Read more here

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