BENGALURU: Civic body
BBMP
failed to fulfil its promise of ridding the city of all potholes by November 10, a deadline set by its chief, BH Anil Kumar, and mayor M Goutham Kumar.
Anil Kumar, however, said 80% of the craters that were identified had been filled up and it was a decent passing score.
“That is a good enough score to pass. Most potholes on arterial and sub-arterial roads are filled. They keep occurring and we will continue to fix them,” he told TOI.
Of the 10,656 potholes identified across the city, BBMP claims to have dealt with 9,319. The number of those still unattended: 1,337. But citizens criticised the tally and the report card, claiming the civic body had understated the extent of the problem and that there were many more craters, big and small, which needed to be fixed.
Mayor Goutham Kumar said the remaining lot would be covered soon. “Rains in the past few days hampered the drive and also caused craters to appear. We will be fill them all potholes in a week,” he said.
The highest number of potholes — 2,688 — were identified in Bengaluru West. “Here, we need to fill 321 now,” he said, adding the effort to list craters began in the first week of October.
On October 22, after a meeting with officials, the BBMP commissioner announced all potholes in the city would be fixed by November 10 to improve traffic movement.
Rathnakar Prabhu, a resident of Nagarbhavi, said the civic body had focused on only major roads, ignoring other stretches. “The road connecting Nagarbhavi to Jnanabharati Campus of Bangalore University has over 50 potholes. Hundreds of students use it every day. Yet, BBMP didn’t repair this section,” Prabhu said.
Sharadha Rao, who lives in Banashakri Stage 6, said the area had over 100 potholes. “Will BBMP take responsibility for this stretch?” she asked.
Uttarahalli resident Suresh N said it was the same situation in his locality: “There are so many craters here. Every time it rains, riding a bike on Uttarahalli main road becomes a perilous task.”
A senior official from BBMP’s major roads wing said it was tackling the problem on main thoroughfares first as they were heavily used. “But people can submit a complaint about their street; we will address it,” he said.
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