Filled up potholes on 26,000 km of road in Bengaluru: BBMP

BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, who held a meeting on December 11, instructed officials to review the work’s progress daily

Amid a barrage of criticism over bad roads, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has intensified efforts to fill up potholes and claims to have filled potholes on 26,000 kilometres of road in 10 days this month.

And the work will only pick up speed in the coming days, B S Prahlad, Chief Engineer (Road Infrastructure), BBMP, promised. “We’ve begun restoring roads that were in a bad shape. At least 26,000 km of road have been filled over the last 10 days,” he told DH on Wednesday.

Wet mix plants run by the civic body were halted during the rains but have kickstarted operations, hitting the production of 22 loads of hot mix a day, another senior BBP engineer said.

“Dry weather is needed for both hot-mix production and filling potholes effectively. We couldn’t produce even a single load of hot mix most days last month. For the past 10 days, however, we’ve been using up nearly 22 loads a day on average. Over 2,459 metric tonnes of hot mix has been despatched since Dec. 1,” the engineer said.

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Blaming unsuitable weather for sluggish repair works, the civic body has vowed to restore roads and aims to make 450 kilometres of road pothole-free by Dec. 25, according to Prahlad.

Multiple contractors are busy filling potholes on ward-level roads. While hot-mix is supplied from plants to plug potholes on arterial and sub-arterial roads, individual contracts have been given for pothole-filling on interior ward-level roads.

“Every ward has Rs 20 lakh grant to fill potholes,” an East Zone official said. “So, tenders have been awarded to fill potholes.”

BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, who held a meeting on Dec. 11, instructed officials to review the work’s progress daily.

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