BANGALORE: The approach road leading to the HMT Factory Road comprises of a mud path resembling the underdeveloped India of 1960’s. However, here, one has to thank the various development projects for the poor state of affairs.
This essentially impairs the life of over 1,000 families living in the Platinum City Housing Complex and affects those using the road to reach Tumkur Road and areas such as HMT layout, BEL, Gangamma Circle, BEL Circle, New BEL Road, and M S Rammiah Institutes. Residents complain that this is the only route to access the city.
The road’s saga began with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWSSB) laying six-feet diameter pipe on the road. Trenches were dug up intermittently. After laying of pipe, the trenches were loosely closed with mud and remained untouched even by a road roller.” Earlier, the road was asphalted. Now, we do not even have a temporary uneven road,” says Santosh, a resident of Platinum Housing Complex.
The Telecom Department too made an appearance. If BWSSB disrupted vehicular movements, the Telecom Department dug up the other half of the road making any movement on the road a painful exercise. The purpose was to lay optic cables through cement concrete pipes with 1.25 feet diameter. Now the excavation of the road was complete, adorned with humps and loose soil, and embellished with stones of all shapes and sizes.
Finally, now, officials from sewerage departments are here to lay UGD pipes. “What is the use of such works, when the residents here do not get BWSSB water. We have to depend on borewell and private water suppliers. And with monsoon just around the corner, a month from now, the road will be impossible even to walk on the road. We might soon have to opt for riding horses, donkeys, mules, and camel to commute on this road,” says Arvind another resident.
A visit to HMT Factory Road might just leave you with a respiratory problem. The development works combined with the heat have filled the air with dust and tiny red earth. The kids playing in the park in the area, commuters and residents breathe in this air making them vulnerable to infections.
When City Express spoke to the area corporator Asha Suresh, her husband directed the reporter to BBMP Assistant Engineer Ramesh. He said, “At present, the BWSSB is laying Cauvery and UGD lines. They will take another week to complete the work. Then the cut stones will be laid following which the road will
be asphalted.”