Long-awaited desire of citizens for a better-looking road coming true

 The road leading to the Gangamma Temple has been closed for vehicles for a week’s time, but the local residents are not complaining.

Instead, the citizens of Chikkaballapur are thanking the stars that the road is, finally,  getting its cover of asphalt. The City Municipal Council has taken up the work of covering the potholes that have been proving a menace to the road users. There are also plans of completing the work within a week’s time.

The Gangamma Temple road is one of the prominent routes passing through the centre of Chikkaballapur town, yet, it has apparently not seen a change of asphalt covering in two-and-a-half decades. The citizens complain that they have not seen efforts by the officials concerned or the representatives over the said 25 years to at least cover the potholes on the road. They have been forced to traverse the mud road, with the force of the vehicles raising dust in large quantities. This, as in chain reaction, has given rise to a spate of complaints by the owners of shops that line the Gangamma Temple road as well as by the road users themselves.

The work on the road has been taken up under the Nagarothana Yojana with a sole aim of bringing this mess to an end. The City Municipal Council started the work to asphalt the stretch of road on Sunday, bringing in earthmovers and other equipment.

City Municipal Council president K V Manjunath, who spoke to Deccan Herald, admitted that the Gangamma Temple road is an important part of the town. “The road runs for 550 metres, all the way from the District armed police force office circle on MG Road till the Bhuvaneshwari Circle, outside the City Municipal Council office. There are shops set up by goldsmiths all through the stretch, on both sides of the road. In addition, there are hotels and small shopowners on the Gangamma Temple road,” he described the area.

The president, however, admitted that it was also an extremely narrow road. It is a two-way road, and if vehicles coming from opposite directions cross paths, there will inevitably be a traffic jam on the Gangamma Temple road, said Manjunath.

He also admitted to the difficulties faced by both the road users and the shopowners on boths sides of road due to the extremely dilapidated condition of the road. “We have, therefore, undertaken the work to asphalt the road under the Nagarothana Yojana second phase, at an expenditure of Rs 45 lakh. The work has been going on as per plans so far and should be completed within a span of a week,” he said, and added, “The road has been currently closed for use of all traffic. We have informed both the road users and the shopowners about the prohibition. We trust the asphalt that will be newly laid will stand the test of time.”

 “We are glad that the City Municipal Council has taken up the work of asphalting the Gangamma Temple Road. But, we also expect the work to be of good quality and not last barely a few days, so that things return to square one before too long, said Venugopal, a vehicle user.