BENGALURU: Only 25 potholes exist across the entire city. The figure might raise many eyebrows but this is what Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) claims. While commuters continue to struggle to negotiate potholes and uneven surfaces on city roads in several areas, the civic agency has made this shocking revelation based on the data received from its zonal engineers. Just a month back, the civic body had accepted the presence of 20,000 potholes on city roads.
Strangely, all the 25 potholes were new and found on a few major roads, which are maintained by Road Infrastructure department. According to the civic body’s figures, all the roads falling under the jurisdiction of its eight zonal chief engineers are now free of potholes. While setting the deadline, Chief Minister had earlier stated that chief engineers will be held responsible if there are any potholes on roads.
During the ongoing sessions at Belagavi, BBMP authorities claimed that there are only 25 potholes as on November 20 that need to be filled. The data available with The New Indian Express says there are no potholes on any roads within Palike limits, including West, South, East, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Dasarahalli, Bommanahalli, Yelahanka and Mahadevapura zones.
While a reality check conducted by Express a fortnight after the fourth deadline revealed that potholes continue to dot many city roads, including Shantinagar, Hennur Road, Bellary Road, Narayanpura, Magadi Road and Rajkumar Road.
Chief Minister had set the fourth and final deadline of November 6 to fill all potholes in the city after three people lost their lives in potholes-related accidents. Though a majority of potholes were filled, the quality of work at several places was not up to the mark. Recently, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad had suspended couple of ward engineers for not able to fill all potholes in their respective wards.
When asked about the presence of only 25 potholes in the city, BBMP Special Commissioner Vijay Shankar said these data were given by chief engineers to the engineer in chief.