BENGALURU: At least 95 percent potholes have been filled by Sunday, a day before the set deadline to fill all potholes in the City, claims Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Kumar. However, a reality check of Bengaluru’s roads gave us a different picture. While most potholes were filled, many others were left unattended to. A few others were only fixed with stop-gap arrangements like filling of potholes with debris.
Speaking to Express, mayor said that 95 per cent work of pothole filling has been completed on major roads while 98 per cent of the potholes on sub-arterial and ward roads have been filled.
He said that the remaining potholes were not filled due to several practical issues. “There are many roads where the traffic flow is very heavy. For instance on Nandi Durga Road, Old Airport Road, Indiranagar and Bannerghatta Road, it is impossible to restrict traffic. These are roads which see vehicular movement round the clock,” he said.
Kumar explained, “Four days ago, I was near Nimhans after we received several complaints regarding potholes there. It was 2 am and in the dead of the night when we started work, seven ambulances got lined up in just ten minutes. We had no choice, but to make way for them.”
REALITY CHECK
A reality check revealed that potholes still exist on some major roads in the City. Rajajinagar, Sheshadripuram , Jayanagar, Shantinagar are among some of the areas that are yet to get rid of potholes totally. At Sheshadripuram, while a few potholes are filled with debris, the others have been left open. Motorists who take the stretch of road from Link Road towards Sheshadripuram are forced to negotiate many ditches.
A similar situation exists in Indiranagar where bad stretches trouble commuters. Small potholes are aplenty on the stretch leading to Indiranagar Metro station.At the Outer Ring Road, similar situation exists where the road is replete with potholes. In what appears to be potholes fixed in an unscientific manner, layer has worn off at several places in areas around Majestic. Potholes, which were filled with debris, have also started to resurface.
Nav Bharat Party members who are on a pothole walkathon around the City staged a demonstration near Shantinagar on Sunday. They also encircled and numbered the potholes in an attempt to draw the attention of the government. Party’s state secretary Sharath Kumar said that they have counted at least 64 potholes in and around Brigade Road and Shantinagar areas. “On a lane connecting Brigade Road, we did not count the potholes as there are more potholes than patches of road,” said Sharath. He said at most of the places, BBMP has filled potholes but they have already worn off.
Missed deadlines
The Palike has so far missed three deadlines to fill potholes. Previously, the BBMP commissioner had said that incessant downpour in the City made it impossible for them to fill the potholes within the set deadline. The initial deadline was set for September 25. However, the same was not met. Following this, two other deadlines were given in September and October.