Did BBMP follow road-building standards? Rain gave the answer

'Palike doesn't follow specifications in contract or PWD's code'

The severe damage caused to roads across the City following incessant rainfall over the past few weeks has raised serious doubts about the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) compliance with road-building standards.

Though designed to last at least five years, many roads asphalted in recent months have given way. While asphalt has been washed away on many roads, potholes have appeared on others.

According to N Devaraju, former chief engineer of the BBMP’s Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC), the Palike never bothers to follow the specifications in the contract or even those mentioned in the Public Works Department’s code of work. “If the specifications are followed, the roads will last for more than five years and require minimum maintenance, which means patchwork,” he said.

He said that the existing roads in Bengaluru’s core areas comprising east, west and south zones didn’t require Base Macadam (BM), a 50-mm thick layer of bitumen. But BM finds mention in all road-related contracts in the BBMP. Semi Dense Base Concrete (SDBC) of 20-mm thickness is sufficient for these roads. The temperature of bitumen is also not maintained, so the quality of road suffers, Devaraju said.

Ashok Kheny, Managing Director, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (Nice), which is building the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), also criticised the BBMP’s road works. Kheny, who is also an MLA, said the BBMP never laid proper base for roads.
“There is no proper drainage and compaction is absent. The temperature of bitumen isn’t maintained either, which should ideally be 110 degrees Celsius. If these specifications are followed, the road will easily last for five years,” Kheny said.

The recent spell of rainfall damaged BMIC roads, too, Kheny conceded but said the severity of damage was nothing compared to roads in the City.

Chief Engineer of the BBMP’s Major Roads Division, K T Nagaraj, had a different take on the matter. He said that maintaining Bengaluru’s road network of 13,000 km, including 3,800 km arterial and sub-arterial roads, at a time would “cost a bomb”. The Palike’s financial condition doesn’t permit it to carry out road work of a mega scale.

“Roads in the City were good so long as it was Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) spread over 224 sq km. Problems started once the limits were expanded to 825 sq km to form the BBMP,” he pointed out.

Nagaraj referred to Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road which was laid nine years ago. There are many roads within the City which were laid a decade ago. In contrast, many roads in the newly added area were never built after the Palike’s limits were expanded. He gave the examples of Thanisandra, Bagalur, Jakkur and so on.

“There are many roads in the newly added areas which we are building now. There are 80 roads for which we have been granted Rs 440 crore, while building a four-lane road needs at least Rs 1.25 crore per kilometre,” Nagaraj said.

Another Palike engineer said on the condition of anonymity that improving Bengaluru’s roads at a time would require at least Rs 7,500-8,000 crore.