Tragedy spurs BBMP, govt into action on potholes

District in-charge minister to inspect roads across the City

The death of software professional Sthuti Pandey (25), after her husband rode his two-wheeler over a pothole on Devarabeesanahalli flyover on Thursday, seems to have finally woken up the State government and BBMP. 

They have promised the citizens to rid the City of potholes by October-end and make the roads motorable.

Bengaluru district in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy has also charted out a programme to inspect roads from September 24 to October 6. On the first day, he will visit the Ring Roads under the BDA control followed by visits to all the eight zones. He said he will ask the BDA to hand over the 23-km long Ring Road to the BBMP for better maintenance.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the officials of various government agencies, Reddy said joint commissioner and other senior officials will face the action for the accident.

“Not just the assistant executive engineers or the assistant engineers, we will initiate action against the senior officers for the accident. Those derelicting their duties will be repatriated,” he said.

Reddy said various government agencies had been asked to coordinate with each other to prevent damage to the roads. 

The minister said, “Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the telecom companies, primarily the former, are responsible for ruining the roads. We have asked them for better coordination with the BBMP.”

Replying to a query, Reddy said that potholes had not been counted and there was no need to do so as they would be filled on a priority basis. He admitted that money would not come in the way of repairing the roads.

The minister added that the pothole-filling work could be assigned to the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL). 

However, the improvement of City roads with the State government grant of Rs 1,000 crore will be carried out by the Public Works Department. Already tenders have been floated for works which are worth Rs 347 crore. An additional grant of Rs 550 crore to the BBMP under the Nagarotthana Scheme will be utilised for this purpose.

Road historyIn response to a question, Ramalinga Reddy said that by November end the Geographical Information System (GIS) based road history will be completed.

Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy, who was also present, said the BDA and some private layouts have not furnished details of roads under their control, which hindered the completion of road history.

“Almost 85 per cent of the work is over and by November end, we will implement it,” said Reddy.

It may be recalled here that the GIS based road history was mooted five years ago and it faced a lot of hurdles from vested interests. If implemented, minute details of every road in the City would be put up in the public domain.