The recent spell of rains have only further deteriorated the condition of the city roads with several thousands of new potholes and bad stretches appearing. Several motorists and residents have been complaining and social media is abuzz with photographs and rants against potholes.
Chief civic commissioner Tushar Giri Nath on Monday said that as per their data, they had recently closed over 20,000 potholes and as per data there were only over 500 potholes remaining. However, he was quick to add that with rains potholes were being added everyday and the count was an underestimate and said there could be nearly 1,500-200 potholes on major roads in the city and works to close them had been hindered by rains.
The Commissioner’s claim has invited smirks from many residents including the Bengaluru Traffic Police officials who are now reporting potholes directly on FixMyStreet app. “We have been reporting nearly 200 potholes on an average everyday. Even a conservative estimate will put the number of potholes at over 10,000,” a senior traffic police official told The Hindu. But he added that even that would be an undercount, as traffic police report potholes only from main roads where they are posted and several interior roads in residential pockets had also deteriorated badly and that was not being reflected.
Jagadish Reddy, from Varthur Rising, said not only have the roads developed several potholes rendering them unmotorable in Varthur, the irony was that potholes were appearing repeatedly at the same spots where they were closed recently. Residents of Jalahalli also make the same complaint. “A few potholes in Jalahalli are as deep as seven inches and we have had several minor accidents over the past week, thankfully none of them fatal,” said Chaitra R., resident of the area.
The High Court had on October 8 pulled up the BBMP for shoddy work in closing potholes and directed them to ensure quality in pothole-filling works. A senior traffic police official said that the civic body must also correct the road topography while filling potholes to ensure water again doesn’t stagnate in that spot to ensure potholes do not recur again, but sadly not being done. Amidst criticism over BBMP using temporary fix cold mix to fill pothole, Mr. Giri Nath on Monday indicated even cold mix was not being used. “Now that aggregates have become wet, we are not able to use even cold mix. We are only filling the potholes with stones and sand,” he said.
