Fight among civic agencies leaves residents in the lurch

Lack of coordination among the civic agencies has delayed the road-widening project and caused health hazards to people of Adugodi who are forced to live in filthy conditions with sewage flowing right in front of their houses for six months now.

Although the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) successfully completed the road-widening work near the police quarters on the Hosur-Lashkar Road, the area opposite the police quarters has broken sewage lines overflowing and garbage dumped on the main road.

Harish, a mechanic shop owner, says sewage water flows right in front of his shop, emitting a foul smell.

Breeding ground for all ills

“The sanitary lines are broken for the past six months and our repeated complaints have not yielded any result. I fell ill for more than a month recently due to the filth around my shop,” he added.

According to BBMP officials, despite requesting the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials to replace the pipelines, they have not done so.
 
“BWSSB wants us to pay for their replacement work and refuses to execute the work unless payment is made. They have replaced lines on one part of this road, but failed to complete the work on a stretch of another 200 metres,” added the officials.

When contacted, T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB, admitted that the Board had deliberately discontinued the work near Adugodi since the Palike had failed to make any payment till date.

 “We had drawn an estimate of Rs 15.6 crore, which the BBMP had to pay to the Board for all the pipeline replacement work. But till date, we have not received any payment. As a result, we could not pay the contractor who has now refused to complete the work,” he added.

Bescom delays shifting

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has delayed shifting two of their Ring Main Units (RMU) located near Anepalya, which is delaying the road-widening project. The BBMP has completed its work upto the Christian Cemetery and is unable to take up work near the Anepalya junction due to the presence of the two RMUs. 

Bescom assistant executive engineer Prakash says they are unable to shift their utilities as the Palike has failed to give them the Right of Way (RoW) permits. “Replacing Bescom cables has to be done at a stretch and cannot be done in bits. We need separate ducts to lay cables, which is missing in some places,” he said. 

However, the Palike officials said they had only asked them to shift all the RMUs, transformers and electricity poles on the stretch which does not require any duct.

“The cemetery authorities had even permitted Bescom to shift their RMUs inside the cemetery premises. Since Bescom delayed the shifting work, the cemetery authorities went ahead and constructed their walls,” said a BBMP official.

The BBMP has to pay nearly Rs 16 crore to the BWSSB and around Rs two crore to Bescom to shift their utilities, but the Palike is yet to make the payment. On the other hand, BWSSB and Bescom have refused to execute their work till they are paid. The infighting among the civic agencies has caused huge inconvenience to the public.