Pothole plight: BBMP blames lack of coordination
BENGALURU: A series of deadlines to fill up Bengaluru’s infamous potholes -- set by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Revenue Minister R Ashoka and BBMP itself -- have fallen by the wayside. City roads continue to resemble those in a war zone -- potholed, dusty and full of rubble.
The BBMP, which was waiting for the heavy showers of October to subside, is left with no excuse as a week of dry weather has gone by and there is no sign of road-laying being taken up. The civic body had assured residents at multiple resident welfare meetings that the potholes would be filled once rain recedes.
Now, the corporation has come up with another excuse to buy time -- lack of coordination with other agencies. A senior BBMP official told TNIE: “It is very embarrassing for us to face the people because the fault lies with the engineers. But the problem is coordination. Most of the major high-density roads are with KRDCL, and work is being delayed. We inform citizens but they are not convinced.”
Citizens are questioning what happened at various coordination committee meetings and those with the chief secretary. “Why are we paying taxes to the BMBP when the government is not repairing roads? Earlier, officials had cited lack of funds, later they said rain issues, and now they say coordination,” said an agitated Ramanna, a resident of Koramangala.
With the corporation focused on patchwork on city roads, it has completely ignored the 110 villages which were added to BBMP limits, and where roads are even worse. Officials now claim that BWSSB is yet to complete the exercise of laying water pipelines, only after which work can be taken up. But residents of these villages say that not all roads need to be dug up simultaneously and left unattended. Even the main roads are not tarred.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said around 12 major roads are with KRDCL, and BWSSB work is going on in these villages. Directions have been given to repair roads at the earliest.