The BBMP may have failed to fill potholes on city roads, but the traffic police have pulled up their socks to solve the long-standing civic issue.
In the last two months, notwithstanding the rains, Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have filled up nearly 500 potholes by pooling together all the available resources at their level. They have filled up 200 potholes in the western division alone, said Kuldeep Kumar Jain, DCP (Traffic, West).
As the city experienced a rain-free day on Tuesday, traffic cops were busy filling in the potholes at several busy junctions.
The BTP said its personnel had filled up 45 potholes in Byatarayanapura, 20 in Kengeri, 17 near KR Market, 14 in Jalahalli and 86 in other places. Along with positive intervention from local officers and BBMP personnel, cops filled 25 potholes in the eastern division to benefit commuters, said DCP (Traffic, East) K M Shantharaju.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda said that cops were also resolving issues like poor lighting, median lengths, faulty footpaths, lack of pedestrian crossing, road marking and direction boards that require attention.
"We are flagging such problems to the BBMP and other civic agencies and working in a coordinated manner," Gowda said. “We are also classifying and geo-tagging potholes on main roads, sub-roads and in residential areas.”
He pointed out that pothole-filling is a dynamic issue and if one is filled, another develops elsewhere. If a pothole or road defect is found to have caused a road accident, the traffic police name the officials of the civic agency concerned in the FIR, he added.
So far this year, an FIR has been filed at the Kamakshipalya traffic police station against the BWSSB for an accident caused by its work. A charge sheet has also been filed against the BBMP and Bescom by the Pulakeshi Nagar traffic police for an accident caused by a pothole.