Raja Marga road work an insult to royal city

Even when the district in-charge minister visited this road with a coterie of press persons and photographers clicking his ever-smiling face, citizens had raised concerns about the quality and duration taken to complete this road, it hardly found any listeners.

However, some Mysoreans, who decided that they won’t let the sleeping dogs lie, not at least on Raja Marga, took to the street on Tuesday morning. Much to the chagrin of elected representatives and officers, along with contractors — basically all partners in the bungle, activists came to check the quality of works on this street, which had claimed few crores of rupees under the guise of ‘bringing back the old glory’.

Forget low quality
Result: Raja Marga could be easily peeled off, like a fruit facial mask coming off, effortlessly. The Sayyaji Rao road which is hailed as the future ‘Raja Marga’, through which passes Jumboo Savari, was least prepared to take any checks, least of all, tenacity tests. When members of Mysore Against Corruption (MAC) took upon themselves the onus of checking the quality of work and found it to be a big joke. There was no quality, forget low quality, to begin with!

The newly-asphalted road, just in time for Dasara, as it happens every year, members found that it wasn’t even thick by an inch. The tar used was less and hence the layer was fragile or dainty, to say the least. There was no facility for the rain water to flow, camber (slope from the edge of road to its centre) and gradient were terms that were completely alien to this road.

Residents of the area, who were witness to the ‘excellent’ works the contractors executed, shared their observations with the members of MAC. “We told them neither the old asphalt was chipped nor even dusted. There is no way the new layer would hold on, even till the festivities are over,” said a resident.

Dr R Balasubramaniam, founder of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, who was at the forefront of the issue, said their movement was not restricted to Lokpal issue alone, but would take up issues relating to public. To those who started complaining loudly about the substandard work, Balasubramaniam said it was time people joined fight against corruption, instead of complaining from the sidewing.

Devaraj Urs road
Later, speaking to Deccan Herald, social activist Vasanth Kumar Mysoremath, said the condition of Devaraj Urs road where asphalting work for Dasara began with much fanfare with the Mayor launching it, was also of very poor quality when they went to check it.
Retired chief engineer and convenor of Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) H R Bapu Sathyanarayana, N S Verma, H C Kumar, Shashikala, and others were also present on the occasion.