Potholed Old Airport Road gives ‘off-rd’ feel, say Bengaluru motorists

BENGALURU: A video clip doing the rounds on social media zooms into what ails Old Airport Road and how motorists feel about it. Many commuters say driving there offers only an "off-road" experience these days. The road, many motorists concur, has become unfit for vehicular movement, thanks to civic apathy.
The motorists cite the off-roading parallel because of multiple obstacles on the 4-km stretch between Kundalahalli and Varthur Kodi.
Sandeep K, a businessman who uses Old Airport Road daily, said: "The road has been dug up at a few places and potholes dot the stretch. Riding a two-wheeler without falling is an arduous task and very risky at night. At certain places, it gives me a feeling of having strayed off the road."
Aviraj M, a private firm employee and resident of Siddapura on Old Airport Road, said BWSSB had dug up the road near Kundalahalli junction towards Varthur to lay pipelines. "They restored the road but the work was of poor quality. Due to patch work, the road has multiple potholes. Traffic police tried to fill the potholes with concrete. However, even after a woman died in an accident on the stretch a year ago, civic bodies have not cared to fix the road," he said.
BBMP officials said the obstacles were owing to failure on the part of various agencies to properly restore the road after digging it up."The road was in good condition for a long time. Initially, BBMP rejected applications seeking permission to cut the road to lay cables, pipes or wires. But later, the utilities managed to pressure BBMP and get permission to dig up the road. But they failed to restore it properly, resulting in the current hurdles," said an official. He pointed out that earlier, the civic body used to collect funds from the utilities to restore roads after completion of work. Now, the agencies are themselves tasked with restoring roads post work. But they are not doing their work properly, he added.
BS Prahalad, BBMP's engineer-in-chief and also head of the engineering division of major roads, said the Palike will check the stretch to find out the places having problems. "We'll ask the agencies concerned to repair the road properly, if the fault's on their part," said Prahalad.
A citizen group - Citizen Movement, East Bengaluru - took to X (formerly Twitter) to complain about huge potholes on Vibgyor High School road in Thubarahalli. It said the spot had turned accident-prone and requested BBMP to assist in getting it fixed.