BBMP's mantra to fix potholes: Hot-mix plants in four corners of city

The BBMP will be looking for an established hot mix plant of a minimum 50/80 TPH capacity in four zones

In order to fill potholes as and when needed, the BBMP has decided to engage privately owned hot-mix plants in four different parts of the city.

The civic body, which owns one such plant in Kannur, plans to partner with private firms for two years. Such an arrangement, officials say, will help reduce the turnaround time to fix bad roads that received no grant for proper development.

The BBMP will be looking for an established hot mix plant of a minimum 50/80 TPH capacity (in a fully working condition) in the West, Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli/South and RR Nagar/Dasarahalli zones.

Private firms are expected to manufacture and supply various bituminous mixes for the repair of potholes and resurfacing of bad reaches, including the cost of all materials, machinery, labourers, etc.

Officials say such a ready-made facility is required to cater to the huge number of requests from the ward and zonal engineers to fix the roads without much delay.

“We have outsourced operations and maintenance of the BBMP-owned plant in Kannur to a private firm. But we cannot depend on one plant to cater to all zones,” said B S Prahlad, chief engineer of the BBMP’s road infrastructure division. The Kannur plant, he added, would cover the East Zone once the other four facilities are ready.

It is, however, learnt that the BBMP’s Kannur plant has stopped working after officials refused to entertain the request of contractors to increase the cost of materials, which is not allowed as per the tender conditions.

No takers

Last month, the BBMP floated tenders inviting private firms, which have a hot mix plant within a 20-km radius, to partner with it to supply bituminous mix for two years.

Sources, however, said the civic body did not find many takers for the tender.

While MSV Constructions participated in three tenders, zones such as RR Nagar/Dasarahalli and South/Bommanahalli did not receive many bids.

While the purpose of setting up a decentralised facility sounds promising, the BBMP does not have a record of running its own facility at Kannur efficiently and transparently. The plant was established to meet the urgent need of filling potholes but it has made little use of this facility as it continues to take up asphalting work even for small stretches of road by floating tenders.