BBMP pulls up Smart City for shoddy roadworks in CBD

The BBMP has pulled up the Bengaluru Smart City Limited (BenSCL) for the shoddy roadworks in the Central Business District (CBD).

Pointing to frequent waterlogging and poor maintenance of these “smart roads”, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta wrote a letter to BenSCL and asked it to quickly resolve the issues.

“We have received several complaints pertaining to the condition of these roads in the CBD besides our own engineers making observations,” Gupta wrote in the letter to BenSCL Managing Director Rajendra Cholan.

The BBMP boss has also drawn the agency’s attention to growing traffic congestion on CBD roads due to delayed projects.

“Despite our communication to BenSCL, during the regular meetings, about these problems, the action taken by them was not forthcoming and hence we decided to be formal,” the BBMP boss said.

Gupta pointed to problems like the inordinate delays in covering the DBM (dense bituminous macadam) layer with bituminous concrete causing its disintegration in some roads.

“Grating has been installed on all roads to facilitate the free flow of rainwater into the drain. But on many roads, gratings have been installed at (a) higher elevation resulting in the stagnation of water, affecting both the traffic movement and spoiling the surface of the road,” Gupta said in the letter.

The Palike has also pointed to unfinished work by BenSCL in linking the BWSSB lines between two roads using a duct. “Several concrete electric poles have also not been removed,” it noted.

Stunned by the rap, BenSCL vowed to coordinate with the BBMP to execute works without inconveniencing the public. Cholan said problems like waterlogging happened in a few roads where work was ongoing.

“We couldn’t complete the work on a few roads due to incessant rains,” he told DH. Of the 32 roads where BenSCL has been working, 14 are ready for DBM layer. DBM has been laid on nine other roads. “On the roads where DBM is not laid, we still have to fine-tune to ensure smooth flow of water,” Cholan explained.

BenSCL has conveyed the issues to BBMP, Cholan said, adding that the two agencies would work in coordination with each other.