Amid opposition, BBMP firm on using pothole patcher

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is firm on using the pothole-filling machine Python 5000 even as a section of the corporators claims that the machine is of no use.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy said the machine would speed up the pothole-filling exercise in the City and it could even be reused through the tender process. “If the machine is in a good condition, we may consider reusing it,” he said.

However, leader of the Opposition in the BBMP Council, Padmanabha Reddy, was not in favour of Python 5000. “The machine is of no use and is being used to loot the taxpayers’ money. No road maintenance work has been carried out. We will oppose the reuse of it in the Council,” he said.

Python 5000 is an imported machine introduced on the Bengaluru roads by American Road Technology and Solutions Private Limited (ARTS) after an initiative by the BBMP and the State government.

In 2013, the work of filling potholes on arterial and sub-arterial roads – spread across eight different zones in the BBMP limits – were classified into six packages. In the two subsequent years, ARTS took up the contract to fill potholes on roads stretching over 1,940 km at a cost of Rs 17.37 crore, which includes 923 km of arterial and 1,017 sub-arterial roads. While the agency has already completed the contract on five packages, the road maintenance in RR Nagar and Bommanahalli (385 km) ends in December.

According to a senior official in the BBMP, ARTS has executed work on roads stretching over 1,027,75 km under five packages, which include arterial and sub-arterial roads in the East (134 km), South (145 km), West (190 km), Bytarayanpura-Dasarahalli (320.75 km) and Mahadevapura zones (238 km). The BBMP has paid Rs 5.85 crore to the company and owes it Rs 67.33 lakh. The agreement exempts maintenance of newly asphalted and damaged roads, he added.

Traffic engineering advisor Sreehari M N said the officials had to monitor the works undertaken by ARTS, instead of blindly opposing the use of the pothole-filling machine.