BBMP extends deadline to fill potholes to Thursday

The BBMP has extended the deadline for its personnel to fill potholes by three more days.

BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad had set a deadline of Sunday night. After his inspection on Sunday night, the deadline was extended to 48 more hours, which was Tuesday night. But now, BBMP has extended the deadline to three more days, which will be till Thursday night.

The number of potholes has increased due to the rain in the last few days. The BBMP has now woken up to fill the 5,079 potholes in the city. Motorists are having a tough time negotiating the potholes.

Geetha S, a resident of Vijayanagar who travels to Koramangala every day, said, “It is a pain to travel these days. As it is, the potholes are more and with the rains last week, the roads have become worse.”

Pavan K R, a resident of Koramangala, said, “I think it is high time the government finds a permanent solution to this problem. The civic body has said it will white-top certain roads so that they last long. They should implement this for the arterial roads as well.”

BBMP has conducted a study on 1,300-km of arterial and sub-arterial roads across eight zones to arrive at the number of potholes. Most potholes are found in the east and west zones, the core areas where most vehicles travel.

B S Prahallad, chief engineer, road infrastructure, BBMP, said the optical fibre cables laid by private agencies were causing the potholes.

“The companies dig up the road and do not restore them after the work. We have told BWSSB, KPTCL and GAIL not to dig the roads during rain. We have also lodged a complaint with the police against one of the companies,” said Prahallad.

“The continuous rain has made it difficult to mix asphalt with the emulsion,” he said. Prahallad said 4,090 potholes were filled till Monday night.

The BBMP commissioner will continue the inspection till Tuesday to ensure that the work is completed at the earliest.