BENGALURU : The Karnataka High Court’s continuous monitoring of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) efforts to fill up potholes across the city has still not left residents satisfied with the condition of Bengaluru’s roads. According to residents in several areas, the work being done by BBMP to fill these potholes is merely an eyewash and in some cases downright dangerous. “It is clear that the BBMP is not taking the HC order seriously and that is very unfortunate for this city. Drastic action is what they are inviting from the HC,” said Rajkumar Dugar, a member of the Vasanth Nagar Residents Welfare Association (RWA).
“The roads are tarred in the wrong manner and are not completed properly. I had highlighted the problem to the corporator as well. They are just doing their work for namesake,” he explained adding that there are potholes on the 7th and 10th Cross Road in Vasanth Nagar.In eastern Bengaluru, the problem is the same according to Indira Arun, a member of a RWA in Bangalore East. “The BBMP fills the potholes and tars the roads but it goes back to a bad state within a month. It is only their agenda to work within the deadlines but without quality,” she said.
At VV Puram in the southern part of the city, the situation is similar. “We cannot walk on the footpaths or on the road. The condition of both is pathetic. There is no way to move around in a safe manner,” said Jayakumar OV, a resident of the area and member of the local RWA. While the BBMP has been filling potholes, they have been doing a temporary job and residents in many areas say that the patchwork is now coming undone.
“They filled up potholes in the area with jelly stones and other materials just to show that work had been done. But these came loose and created a bigger danger for motorists who now stand a chance of slipping and falling. Water logging during rains just makes the situation worse as you cannot even see these potholes sometimes,” said Ashish Parthasarathy, a resident of Kanakpura Road. MN Sreehari, a traffic expert, opined that the current work by the BBMP was nothing more than a temporary fix.
“BBMP is just doing the task manually instead of using proper machines. What needs to be done is that they must make a hole greater in diameter than the pothole. Then they must use a tack coat, to be used in between. This acts as a bonding agent between the old surface and the new surface. Then they mix the cold segregrate and fine aggregrate and further heat the mixture to 140 degrees. The mixture needs to be placed inside in two layers. And finally, the edge of the cracks need to be covered with seal coat which will cover the cracks so that water does not enter. Put stone dust so that dust does not get into the tyres of vehicles.”