BENGALURU: Residents of East Bengaluru are upset with the civic agencies due to improper road works. On Wednesday, a woman who was en route to drop her child to the school found herself stranded on the road opposite Shalom Church in Kodathi.
The residents of the locality took to social media to highlight the poorly maintained roads and draw the attention of the government agencies and the Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar. They said that road works by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) have been going on for the last two years.
“I was on my morning walk and saw a woman trying to navigate the slushy road and her car wheels got stuck. We had to get a JCB to pull the car out. Works of laying water pipelines in the 110 villages is ongoing and this area is on the list. Had the works been completed by August, when there was no rain, this incident would not have happened,” said Mitlesh Kumar, member of the Resident Welfare Association, Kodathi.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) blamed BWSSB for the incident. A senior BBMP official said, “There have been reports of partial sinking of roads in some areas and this is after the pipeline works. The BWSSB should use construction debris to fill the roads before tarring them. Roads cave in when the soil becomes loose. He added the issue of addressing bad roads has been pending for a year. Many meetings in this regard have been held, but the issue remains unsolved.
Arun Kumar, Assistant Engineer, BWSSB, said that there were no sinkholes and the woman’s car was stuck in the roadside drain. “As the incident spot was turned into a debris dumping spot, people had even dumped their waste, and due to rain, the area turned slushy. The woman, while driving her car, tried to avoid slush and her wheels got stuck in the roadside drain,” said Kumar.
The BWSSB official added that work related to the Cauvery pipeline is in progress and that it has not caused any issues for the public. “Out of a 300-metre stretch of road work, 220 metres is completed,” he added.