Delay in whitetopping adds to congestion on Hosur Road

BENGALURU: Commuters on

Hosur Road

will have to wait longer for a bump-free ride. Though the work began last year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seems to be dragging its feet on its completion. It has become a tough task for commuters to manoeuvre along the narrow road, especially in the night.

The work is over on one side of the two-lane Hosuru Road, towards Anepalya from Adugodi Junction. However, there hasn’t been much progress on the other side of the road. The

civic body

is still in the process of replacing sanitary and water lines to facilitate

whitetopping

.

Sewage water can be seen flowing freely on the road, with large cement pipes lying by the roadside. Motorists have to manoeuvre carefully as half of the road space has been filled with dug-up mud, and pipe debris. The drain work has left pavement in shambles.

V T Vijay Kumar, assistant sub-inspector stationed at Adugodi Junction said he has been at the receiving end of people’s frustration due to the apathy of the civic agencies. “The constant congestion in certain pockets of the road is frustrating many commuters. The work is progressing slowly. While whitetopping has been completed till Madiwala checkpost on one side of the road, there is still work left on the other side. Even the medians have to be re-done as they have only placed temporary blocks as of now,” he said.

Lingamma M, who runs a tea stall on the sidewalk next to the National Dairy Research Institute, said: “We have been doing our business amid clouds of dust and constant congestion on the roads. Business is very bad. The work must be completed at the earliest.”

‘Need 20 more days’

KT Nagaraj, chief engineer (projects), attributed the delay to time taken for replacement of sanitary and water lines on one part of the stretch. He said it would take 20 more days for the stretch to be ready. “Concretization work is still going on. Once the replacement of the lines is done, we’ll finish whitetopping also in 20 days. Around 310m of water line and 50-60m of sanitary line replacement is pending. We are replacing and sealing the road simultaneously,” he said.