BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has started slapping notice on contractors in areas where potholes have resurfaced on newly tarred roads.
The Palike is also now requesting citizens to be its eyes and inform them of the potholes that resurface after every downpour. The civic body is doing this to save itself from people’s wrath and also, it does not want to draw the attention of the Karnataka High Court, yet again.
Using the defects liability period, one of the prime clauses in the contract, BBMP has started slapping notice on contractors for poor maintenance of roads. It is also working towards penalising the contractors for not repairing the roads.
“There is a defects liability period in every contract and all newly laid roads fall under that. Potholes resurfacing again only means the contractor has not done a good job and will will have to repair it,” said Somashekhar, chief engineer, major roads, BBMP.
Through the notice, the contractor is warned and asked to fill the pothole, failing which he will be penalised. Maximum notices have been issued to contractors working in east and north Bengaluru, Somashekar added.
Last year, the Karnataka High Court had pulled up the BBMP for poor condition of roads, and the accidents and casualties resulting from that. Also, at the maiden monsoon preparedness meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara recently, stern directives were issued to all BBMP officials to ensure that the roads are motorable and are pothole-free.
The engineers have also been assigned the task to survey roads in all wards to check if they are pothole-free. Last year, the BBMP had used GPS technology to locate potholes. Now, the BBMP is also displaying the list of potholes repaired in the city, but citizens are not convinced.
Srinivas Alavilli, member of Citizens for Bengaluru, said the reason why things do not work is that everything is centralised. Works like garbage maintenance and pothole maintenance should be handled at the ward level. Ward committees should be involved. Ward engineers and corporators should look into this instead, he said.