Killing an idea: Attempts to dilute TenderSURE project

Cosmetic makeover being talked about, without shifting utilities

The selection of the next 25 roads for a TenderSURE upgrade has surely thrown the BBMP into a tizzy. But, even as hectic lobbying is on to prioritise one road over the other in the final list, a parallel attempt is being made to dilute the project. Here’s how: A cosmetic makeover of the roads without shifting the underground utilities.

The guidelines for the roads are yet to be finalised. A decision whether to shift the utilities or not is yet to be taken, a top BBMP official told Deccan Herald.

This is a clear indication that the guidelines – adopted for the first 12 roads already being upgraded under the project – are now being reviewed.

Fresh guidelines without mandatory shifting of utilities will jeopardise the project, warned the brains behind the TenderSURE model. The essence of the TenderSURE design is to keep all key utilities such as power, water, sewage and OFC cables under the pavements.
A project veteran closely linked to the road upgrade programme said a movement is now gathering pace within the Palike to limit the project to only beautification.

Contracts linked to road repair, pothole filling and frequent digging to maintain underground utilities constitute a big chunk of the BBMP budget, and are thus prone to corruption.

Under TenderSURE, the utility lines below the footpath could be maintained without disturbing the motorway. Underground ducts are provided openings at regular intervals, negating the need to dig.

Less road-digging

More roads remodelled under TenderSURE would mean less road-digging and road repair contracts. Sources said the anti-project lobby are suspected to have played mischief, deliberately digging up an unfinished TenderSURE stretch of Residency Road recently to demonstrate the vulnerability of even the new roads. For external consumption, the incident was passed off as a case of poor coordination between BBMP and BWSSB, the sources explained.

Would kill the concept

Urban infrastructure experts cautioned that any move to dilute the project would eventually kill the concept itself, a unique pedestrian-first approach to road-building. TenderSURE, said an expert, is not a beautification project. It is a functional one, a design that strikes a balance between motorised, non-motorised and pedestrian traffic.

There should be no compromise on the project guidelines for the 25 roads that would eventually get selected. However, the philosophy behind the project could be applied to the non-TenderSURE roads built by BBMP across the city, said an expert.

These roads could do without underground utility shifting but integrate the project design of uniform motor lanes, continuous footpaths and drains.