If BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) is to be believed, then about 80 roads in the city will be free of digging for various purposes. As a part of the process the civic agency has marked 18 roads in three packages under Specifications for Urban Road Execution (SURE) with investment of `200 crore.
A sum of `100 crore for the project will be given from the CM's Nagrotana Grant and the Palike will source `100 crore from its account. The contractors can avail the money only after completion of the project.
BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana told City Express that this project, will be the first of its kind in the entire country. "Once the project is complete, the roads will not require any major maintenance for next 20 years as cutting and digging will not be allowed on these roads. The money that would have gone into repairs and maintenance of those roads can be better utilised for improving other major roads," the Commissioner said.
The first package includes seven roads. Commissionerate Road, Cunningham Road, Residency Road, Richmond Road, Museum Road, Vittal Mallya Hospital Road and St Marks Road. "Work on three roads has started. Cunningham Road, St Marks and Vittal Mallya Road will be completed as per the agreement between the contractor with the Palike. Within six months, work on Vittal Mallya Road will be completed as there are less obstacles," he said.
This package is slated at `78 crore and the work that has begun has to be finished in one year.
Chief Engineer K T Nagraj said, "The roads will be concretised. There will be double sided utility ducts for cables and pipes. The Palike will have good footpaths and there will be shoulder drains to ensure no stagnation of water."
Others Roads
Other roads under package 3 that have been cleared by Palike are Modi Hospital Road, Siddaiah Purnik Road, K G Road, Nrupatunga Road, 11th Main Road Jayanagar and they will be reworked with `61.56 crore. Due to the election code, the process of inviting tenders for the package 2 has been stalled. After the election process is over, the process will be initiated.
"This package has seven roads. Under the project, Church Street, K H Road, Commercial Street, Raj Bhavan Road, 20th Main Road Koramangala and JC Road will be taken up for work with investment of `57.32 crore. Two contractors, NAPC and RNS have bagged the contract NAPC will work on package one and RNS will execute work of roads mentioned under package three. After the election results, this module will be replicated in other roads and the Palike plans to cover close to 70 roads," said an BBMP official.
Trees Under Scanner
While, old and diseased trees may be cut, Engineer Nagaraj said the trees that block the double side utility will have to be cut as well but this will be done in consultation with BBMP's forest cell.
Expert Speak
Vivek Menon, Center for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban
Planning (CiSTUP) of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) said, "This is a good move. There was an example already at Vittal Mallaya Road. This type of thinking was lacking in the system. This puts pedestrians rights at the helm and there will not be any revenue leakage as there will not be any cutting or digging of roads again and again."