BENGALURU: A week ago, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had announced that the city will be pothole free by November 10. But, according to citizens, to reach that deadline, the civic body has been carrying out “shoddy work” in the name of filling potholes.
A number of citizens said the BBMP has been fixing potholes just to meet the deadline, and within a week, these will be back in their original state.A Haralur resident said potholes on the stretch of road to Vibgyor School were filled with jelly stones, but were left without tarring.
“The stretch of Vibgyor School road is in a pathetic state. I happened to see one pothole that was left unattended for a long time. Yesterday, I saw that the pothole was filled with jelly stones. This is even more dangerous for the commuters. Is this how the BBMP is filling potholes to show us that they have filled these by November 1?” the resident asked.
Rakshit, a resident of Gear School Road, said the potholes were laid with wet mix which is just a waste of money and risk to two-wheeler riders. “Fixing potholes or roads with wet mix is a serious waste of money and a risk to bikers. It will start coming out in no time and the part of the road will get even worse. BBMP should fix them permanently and not keep us suffering like this,” he said.
Vidya S, a resident of Hagadur, said, “The potholes are just being filled with some wet mix for the heck of it to meet the deadline.”A number of citizens from Kodigehalli Main Road, Hadosiddapura, RT Nagar, Hosa Road and Vidyaranyapura also had the same thing to say about roads in their areas.
In clarification, BBMP commisioner B H Anil Kumar said, “There is a procedure of fixing the potholes. If potholes are really deep, we need to fix it with wet mix macadan, leave it for a few days and then lay bitumen on it. Many people are not able to understand the procedure.”
EXPERT OPINION
N Sreehari, a traffic expert, said the current work by the BBMP is nothing more than a temporary fix. “The BBMP is just doing the task manually instead of using proper machines. They must make a hole greater in diameter than the pothole. Then they must use a tack coat in between. This acts as a bonding agent between the old surface and the new surface. Then they mix the cold segregate and fine aggregate and further heat the mixture to 140 degrees. The mixture needs to be placed inside in two layers. And finally, the edge of the cracks need to be covered with seal coat which will cover the cracks so that water does not enter. They have to put stone dust so that dust does not get into the tyres of vehicles.”
Mayor writes to MLAs, corporators
Mayor M Goutham Kumar on Tuesday sent a letter to the MLAs and corporators of all the 198 wards stating that the city should become pothole free. He said, “Due to heavy rains and bad roads, more potholes are coming up and proving to be a threat to the motorists. All the potholes should be fixed and even the citizens who find potholes should inform the engineers and local corporators and have the potholes fixed. By teaming up, we can have a pothole-free city.”