BENGALURU: After the High Court directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to stop counting potholes and ensure smooth roads for citizens, the civic body’s engineers are now busy counting the number of pothole-free roads in Bengaluru.
With rainy days ahead, BBMP engineers are facing an uphill task, as they now have to show smooth roads to the High Court at its next hearing on October 23.
At the recent hearing on October 5, the court directed BBMP authorities to make the roads smooth rather than submit a pothole count.
After this, the BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad issued a direction to all concerned zonal and nodal officers to give a list of roads that are pothole-free.
In his letter, the BBMP commissioner has prescribed a format for all the zonal commissioners, chief engineers of all eight zones and other nodal officials concerned. The format has road numbers, ward numbers, number of potholes identified on those roads and the status of those potholes.
He also directed nodal officials to inform the head administrative office if pothole complaints received by public, elected representatives were not sorted out.
However, BBMP engineers are finding it difficult to make smooth roads. “We are not able to fill potholes even if we work day and night. If we fill potholes, rains damage them. Its not just the potholes, many roads are damaged due to various other civic agency works,’’ BBMP Engineer-in-chief (in-charge) MR Venkatesh said.