The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Desilt drains before taking up road works, say residents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 20, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Desilt drains before taking up road works, say residents

pecial Correspondent

BMP official says it is not included in work specifications

BANGALORE: Residents of some parts of Shantinagar are upset. A bit surprising because many streets are going to be repaired and asphalted, for once well ahead of the rainy season.

"The problem is that the road asphalting is going to happen even without the storm water drains on the roadsides being removed of silt and repaired," says Kathyayini Chamaraj, Hon. Secretary of Shantinagar Residents' Development Association (SHRED). She and other residents complain that without the drains in proper shape, the money spent on repairing the roads will go down the drain. Overflowing rainwater will damage the road surface in no time, they say.

As a case in point, the residents show Swasthi Road and Shanti Road. These roads were dug up by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board for relaying pipelines but were not repaired, they say. Broken bricks, sand and gravel have choked up the drains.

"When we took up the matter with the Executive Engineer of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, we were told the desilting of the drains was not included in the work specifications," Ms. Kathyayini said. In fact, they were informed that two different contractors will do the drain desilting and asphalting work and the work was never done simultaneously.

Other residents say that even when drain works are taken up, the contractor always did the work in patches leaving several parts of the drains clogged as before.

The culverts and corners are invariably left out and that is where debris usually collects, they complain.

SHRED has now represented to the BMP that desilting of drains should be mandatory before any road asphalting is taken up; drain works should include desilting of all culverts beneath roads, corners of drains and below all granite or concrete slabs.

Wherever possible, RCC slabs should be replaced by more easily removable cement or granite slabs for easy cleaning of the drains, they suggested.

The association has been asking for conversion of all "box drains" into "L" shaped drains which can be easily maintained.

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