BENGALURU: It is not often that you see a Commander Works Engineer of the armed forces dig the heel of his shoe into a city road only to have it crumble. On Monday, an army engineer did just that, to the amusement of the residents and the chagrin of the gathered civic agency officials.
On a court-mandated mission to inspect the work done by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike in filling up potholes, Dinesh Agarwal, Commander Works Engineer, Military Engineer Services (MES), and Uma M A, Member Secretary, Karnataka Legal Services Authority, visited Maruthi Nagar in Yelahanka in the evening. They found the Palike’s work to be shoddy and pointed out a number of gaps, quite literally. The MES provides rear line engineering support to the armed forces.
After the Palike submitted to the Karnataka High Court on Monday that seven wards in Malleswaram and Mahalakshmi Layout, and four wards in Yelahanka were pothole-free, the court asked the two-member commission to set out on a fact-finding mission in these three areas at 3.30 pm.
Agarwal shot questions at the BBMP engineers — Chief Engineer Parameshwaraiah, Executive Engineer Vasu K M and Assistant Executive Engineer Chandrashekar. Agarwal was visibly bemused as he got evasive replies to questions on whether the Indian Road Congress standards were followed while repairing the roads.
As the engineers briefed him on gradation, design, temperature and how much bitumen was used per square metre, he questioned the weight of the coating and demanded to see the contract agreement and work orders for the work done. At one point, he remarked, “As engineers, you are failing!... I will not ask again, if the documents requested are not provided, I will report the same to the court.”The commission will submit its report to the high court on Tuesday.
Civic body tries to pass the buck
“Why are you using kerosene to test when as per the rule you have to use benzene solution to check?” Dinesh Agarwal, Commander Works Engineer, questioned the engineers on one of the road tests.
As he walked further down the road he found small potholes, gaps in the asphalted road around manholes and road depressions filled with water.
The BBMP engineers tried to pass the buck to the BWSSB saying that they did not fill it after doing their job or that the level of the manhole needs to be raised. The inspection at the spot had almost reached its end and as Agarwal was about to turn around on 1st main road, 7th cross of Maruthi Nagar, an angry woman resident convinced him to walk till the end of the road. “Please walk further down, you’ll find many more potholes,” she said, and he did.