Even Rs 20,000 crore cannot fix the many problems of Bengaluru roads

Reflecting the stark reality of Bengaluru's roads, the Karnataka government said on Thursday that it has spent Rs 20,060 crore on their upkeep since 2015 and there isn't a single kilometre that is free from problems.

This was Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's written response to a question by MLC PR Ramesh, a former Bengaluru mayor. Bommai is also the Bengaluru City Development minister.

In his written response, Bommai said the length of asphalted roads in the city is 11,283.05 km, of which motorable arterial and sub-arterial roads is just 1,344.34 km.

Bommai assured that a "road maintenance audit" will be carried out to fix responsibility on officials for poor quality work.

Bommai said that the audit will assess how much was spent on each stretch of road in the city, the number of times asphalting and pothole filling was done, contractors who took up the project, officials responsible to monitor the upkeep of roads etc.

Admitting the state of Bengaluru's roads, Bommai said legislators are attracting criticism from citizens. "Considering this, we have decided to conduct the road audit," he said, adding that government will initiate action against officials who failed to maintain the roads following the audit.

During the discussion on the issue, Ramesh highlighted the works on Magadi Road that were completed three months ago and are of inferior quality. "Months after it was asphalted, potholes have come up in the road which have been filled three or four times already," he said.

Bommai assured the MLC that the government would conduct an inquiry into the incident.

To a question on whether there was any one kilometre stretch of main roads in the city that did not have "thermal cracks, potholes, stripping, debonding, bleeding, ravelling" etc, the government responded in the negative.

Bommai said that such roads were not present as one or the other changes are being effected on roads in the city.

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