The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BMP Council approves road repair contract

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 23, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BMP Council approves road repair contract

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 22. The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council on Wednesday approved the proposal to outsource maintenance of 2,000 km. of roads at a cost of over Rs. 18 crores amidst opposition from the Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular) members.

The two parties said the BMP itself could do the job at a much lower cost.

The Council resolved to ask a private firm to construct eight overpasses for pedestrians on Build-Own-and-Transfer (BOT) basis and to allow Srinivas Gayathri Resoruces (SGR) Ltd. to produce 6 MW of power using 1,000 tonnes of waste everyday. It awarded the contract of construction of a pedestrian subway at Vijayanagar at a cost of Rs. 63.68 lakhs on a turnkey basis to Vencor Construction Company and a subway at Hudson Circle at a cost of Rs. 2.95 crores to Chandragiri Construction Company.

The Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular) members, who staged a dharna in the House, said the outsourcing would render the BMP gangmen jobless while the BMP employees could do the job well and save the taxpayers' money.

The Mayor, P.R. Ramesh, pointed out that the Public Works Department had outsourced the work to a great success.

Besides filling the potholes, the contractors would maintain the drains, shoulder trains, chop the dangerous tree-branches and even paint the road.

Overpass near temple

The Commissioner, K. Jothiramalingam, said Vantage Advertisers would construct seven of the overpass for pedestrians at places to be suggested by the BMP while Skyline Advertising Pvt. Ltd. would construct one overpass for pedestrians in front of International Krishna Consciousness Society (ISKCON) temple on the West of Chord Road also on BOT basis.

The Mayor said he would request the latter to provide an escalator to the bridge. The companies would hand over the bridges after owning them for 30 years. They would get adequate space to put up hoardings. The police had urged the BMP to construct over 200 such bridges in the city, Mr. Jyothiramalingam said.

Funds to BESCOM

The meeting allowed transfer of Rs. 1.25 crores to the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to replace about 100 traditional transformers with one-pole transformers to save the space on roads and footpaths. This constituted half the expenditure BESCOM incurred on the project.

The Mayor promised to call special a meeting of the Council inviting BESCOM and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials to discuss the problems relating to mini water supply schemes.

Sewing machines

The Council decided to purchase 10,965 sewing machines at a cost of Rs. 1.93 crores from four companies to distribute them to beneficiaries of BMP's tailoring programme; to construct 1050 houses under Rajiv Gandhi Housing scheme at a cost of Rs. 210 lakhs; to cover all the councillors under mediclaim and accident insurance spending Rs. 1.68 lakhs a year; to renew the memorandum of understanding with ISKCON's scheme to supply mid-day meal to 18,900 students of BMP schools; and to clear the revised estimate of Rs. 3.17 crores for the electric crematorium at Banshanakri II Stage.

Earlier, Councillors, cutting across party lines, sought early completion of the Lingarajapuram overpass. The Mayor promised to take it up with the Railways.

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