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Ride gets bumpier for motorists

Krishnaprasad

Certain stretches of roads are dotted with potholes making journey painful

Even important roads are not free of craters
BMRCL blamed for poor state of
CMH Road

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Dangerous: A crater on Miller’s Road in Bangalore.

Bangalore: Motorists are finding it difficult to travel on certain stretches as the BBMP, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the BMRCL have not even filled the potholes despite the delay in execution of the asphalting work.

The stretch of Miller’s Road, CMH Road, parts of Old Madras Road, some stretches on Hosur Road between Johnson Market junction and Madiwala, Magadi Road, some stretches on Mysore Road between Sirsi Circle flyover and Rajarajeshwarinagar entrance, have potholes.

Even though many roads in Bangalore look better since December 2007 as the BBMP asphalted many arterial and sub-arterial roads, some stretches come in the way of smooth flow of traffic. Besides damaging the vehicles they also add to traffic snarls.

The potholed road near and below the Benniganahalli Railway Bridge on Old Madras Road is causing daylong traffic jams (which sometimes stretch well into the night) as motorists struggle to negotiate about 200 metres on this stretch. Two-wheelers and light motor vehicles are the most affected, as many of them get struck in the potholes when it rains.

In fact, there are a series of potholes on the stretch between Ulsoor Road junction and Benniganahalli Railway Bridge. Even the supposedly upmarket roads are not free of craters. Cubbon Road, Ulsoor Road and Raj Bhavan Road are often dug up by the BWSSB to plug leaking pipelines. Cubbon Road — described as road for movement of VVIPs — has an all-season pothole near the Minsk Square due to leakage of BWSSB pipelines and this problem has a history of more than 10 years.

When contacted, BBMP engineers pointed out that a major portion of the Old Madras Road, particularly near the Benniganahalli Railway Bridge, comes under the jurisdiction of the NHAI. The potholes between the Gurudwara and Suranjandas Road are due to leaking BWSSB water pipes, they said.

Moreover, it is the duty of the BMRCL to maintain roads and drains in good condition on roads where the works on the Metro Rail are on. “It is true that CMH Road is in a bad shape and the BMRCL has not maintained it in good condition; we are taking up the matter with them,” said a BBMP officer.

Meanwhile, BBMP engineers said that they had completed asphalting of 35 km of major roads in three zones during 2007-08, 123 km of roads under the Karnataka Municipal Reforms Project since the last two years and 43 km of roads under the project to improve IT/BT roads. Besides, another 60 roads are being asphalted at a cost of Rs. 60 crore under various projects in different areas.

The officials said that about 10 per cent of asphalting work (including the above mentioned stretches) were pending. “We can not ask the contractors to do the work in moist weather as it will affect the quality. Works will be completed as soon as the weather improves,” said a senior engineer.

They also said that 96 km of road were in the process of being asphalted under KMRP and 9 km under the IT/BT improvement project and added that except some portions of uncompleted stretches, many major roads in erstwhile Bangalore city area are in good condition.

However, they admitted that many arterial, sub-arterial and other roads would have to be upgraded in the newly added areas.

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