BENGALURU: Enraged over negative media reports highlighting the poor condition of roads, inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians, and protests by residents against the government, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday warned engineers coming under Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) limits and set October 31 as deadline to make Bengaluru pothole-free.
He fixed the responsibility of supervising and completing the work on chief engineers, and said there is no coordination between BMRCL, Bescom, BDA and BWSSB. “The GBA chief commissioner and heads of these departments should hold a review meeting once a week.
Municipal commissioners, chief engineers, superintendent engineers and executive engineers should be on the field and monitor and ensure that the quality of work is not compromised,” he said. Steps have been taken to appoint a technical coordination officer to coordinate with all the five corporations, he added.
At the meeting, waterlogging and traffic jams on Outer Ring Road was discussed. A decision was taken to fix traffic at Iblur Junction, Agara, Veeranna Palya, Nagawara and Hebbal at a cost of Rs 400 crore.
Rs 750 cr more released to fix potholes: DCM
These stretches have been damaged by BWSSB and Metro works.
The officials briefed the chief minister and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru Development Minister, that of 1,648.43 km of road network coming under GBA, 14,795 potholes have been identified in Bangalore Central, Bangalore East, West North and South Municipal Corporations. Of them, 6,749 potholes have been filled, while 8,046 are pending.
Shivakumar said the government is aware of the hardships faced by Bengalureans due to potholes. The CM has sanctioned an additional Rs 750 crore to address the pothole issue, he added.
White topping work has been completed on 108.20 km of roads, while it is in progress along 143.68 km of roads. “Rs 1,700 crore was sanctioned for the work. Works worth Rs 273 crore for high-density corridors and Rs 752 crore for grade separators were allocated by this government,” Shivakumar said.
In all, 401.63 km of roads have already been asphalted, while the work is progressing on 440.92 km of roads. Development works are underway on a total of 584.60 km of roads. Rs 18 crore has been allocated in the budget to close potholes on arterial and sub-arterial roads. Rs 25 crore has been released to all urban corporations for carrying out any emergency work, Shivakumar stated.
As filling of potholes during rain is a challenge, a tender worth Rs 2.50 crore is underway to use the new technology JETPATCHER, which can close potholes even during wet weather, he said.