BENGALURU: Pulling up the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) over pothole repairs, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed it to place on record the procedure adopted in filling up of potholes and the policy, if any, for permitting agencies like BWSSB, BESCOM and GAIL to cut the roads and repair them in a time-bound manner.
“We are not satisfied with the status report submitted by the BBMP. The Palike should inform as to what technology is being adopted by them for repair of roads and whether they have engaged any experts or outside agencies in construction and repair of roads,” said a division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj while directing the chief engineer to be present before the court on February 7, the next date of hearing.
The directives come on public interest litigation filed by Vijayan Menon and others from Koramangala in 2015. The BBMP counsel had submitted a status report on the city roads. The court observed that the status report itself indicates that roads are filled with potholes and goes to show that pothole repair work has not been done on more than 30-km stretch of major roads and 482 km of zonal ward roads. The report also indicates that agencies like BWSSB, BESCOM and GAIL have done rapid road digging and laid pipelines, resulting in potholes and bad stretches of road, the court added.
The BBMP counsel submitted that repair works are to be done by the agencies and they have not completed it within the prescribed timeline. He also submitted that although these agencies start road cutting roads after obtaining permission, they do not complete the work in time.
In reply, the court noted that the BBMP counsel has not been able to satisfy as to what action was taken against the agencies which were permitted to cut the roads for certain work and have not completed it in the prescribed period. The counsel was also unable to show the procedure and technology adopted to carry out the pothole repair. It is clear that after rains, roads develop potholes, the court observed.
The court pointed out that the BBMP counsel also does not indicate whether there is any policy and coordination between the BBMP and other agencies which carry out various works on the roads and thereby causing distress for people. There should be some coordination between these agencies and BBMP. Moreover, the technology used by BBMP in repairs of roads and potholes does not appear to be proper which causes faulty road repair, the court observed.