The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Utility agencies yet to take action

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Utility agencies yet to take action

By Our Staff Reporter

Pedestrians have to do acrobatics while walking on the footpath on Bannerghatta Road. — Photo: Murali Kumar K.

BANGALORE, OCT. 13. With the 10-day deadline about to end, not many changes are visible on Bannerghatta Road. On October 4, the staff and students of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), information technology firms, businesses, and residents of close-by layouts had blocked the road for three hours demanding repairs to the road that has remained neglected for some years now.

During a visit to the road on Wednesday showed that between J.P. Nagar 3rd Phase and up to the Meenakashi Sundareswara Temple, no road building equipment was seen. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) was carrying out work on relocating pipelines.

The Public Works Department (PWD) authorities had claimed that delay in re-engineering the road was because the utility agencies were yet to shift their cables and pipelines. There were no signs of the electricity utility carrying out any work. Some private telecom companies were found relocating their optic fibre cables.

There was just one signboard near the J.P. Nagar end proclaiming the roadwork was to be taken up by the PWD, making it a four-lane stretch, at a cost of Rs. 22 lakhs in six months. But the board does not say when the work will begin.

Near Dollars Colony, for a stretch of 150 metres, the road was seen levelled and the removed earth has piled up on either side. With no proper footpaths, pedestrians have to walk on the road. A local petrol station owner said this work had been done on Tuesday. "This has caused some problems because now there is only one entry point into my premises... my customers are upset," he said. The entry point to the petrol bunk is up a gradient, now muddy after rains and a motorcyclist had skidded and fallen down. Oil tankers cannot easily reach the petrol station either.

Except for a few sodium vapour lights, most stretches of the road lack adequate lighting is the complaint of those forced to use Bannerghatta Road. There are lampposts but no light fixtures on them. The road still remains waterlogged at several places and it is difficult to drive on according to employees of two IT firms located there, Honeywell and Accenture. "After any heavy downpour water reaches up to the central road median which is not easily visible at night. This has caused several accidents," they said.

Some residents of areas along the road said the Government should seriously consider taking penal action against engineers who allowed the road to remain in this pitiable state. "Since the government agencies are themselves to blame, who will be punished," they asked.

Some employees of the Centre's Coconut Development Board located here said it would have been more practical for the roadwork to be taken up in phases with realistic targets for each stretch to be repaired and re-laid.

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