BENGALURU: Mayor M Goutham Kumar hopped on his two-wheeler and rode through the West Zone on Sunday on his first city round after taking charge. Earlier, former Mayor Sampath Raj had also rode a bike to inspect roads.
He started his rounds at 11.30 am, along with the zone’s Joint Commissioner and Executive Engineer on their bikes. Speaking to TNIE, Kumar said, “I wanted to use a bike to go on rounds as I wanted to see how the two-wheeler riders feel while riding on a bad stretch. Today, I had a first-hand experience of their issues. I’ll make sure all the roads are restored and made commutable. I have decided to conduct city rounds every day from Thursday, I might just miss it during important meetings.”
The ride started from Mantri mall and within 100 metres from the mall, he spotted two potholes. He reprimanded the Joint Commissioner and Executive Engineer and asked them to get it fixed. After he rode on the service road near Mantri mall, which was in a bad shape, he asked the zone officers to restore the roads.
In front of Savita theatre, he saw many branches had fallen on the road creating huge traffic jams and troubling pedestrians. He ordered to cleared the branches immediately. While inspecting the Srirampura railway under bridge (RUB), he saw drainage water leaking from it and asked authorities to fix it.
He asked officers to get the potholes fixed wherever he spotted them. All the joint commissioners, chief engineers and heads of departments of the West Zone were instructed to go on rounds every day for two hours, check the roads, and also listen to public grievances.
The Joint Commissioners (West) and EE were ordered to solve all the issues spotted by October 13. The Mayor asked them to make the entire zone pothole-free by October 30.