Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah sets one month deadline to fix potholes in Bengaluru

After drawing criticism for the poor state of roads in the city, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Saturday, set a one month deadline to ensure that all the potholes are fixed and the roads are in a good condition.

Siddaramaiah is said to have taken the officials to task for failing to finish the road repair works before monsoons. Questioning the inefficiency of the engineers, Siddaramaiah said that action will be taken against officials who fail to take measures to improve the roads.

According to the data presented to the Chief Minister, 14,795 potholes have been identified across the city and of this, only 6,749 have been fixed and another 8,046 potholes continue to bother the commuters.

The Chief Minister has also instructed the Commissioners of the five city corporations to review the progress on ground and the Greatest Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner to hold a weekly meeting with all the five corporation heads. A technical coordinator will also be appointed to coordinate between the five corporations.

Siddaramaiah also noted that there was hardly any coordination between the five corporations and the civic agencies such as BMRCL, Bescom, and BWSSB and urged the agencies to work in coordination with each other to meet the set deadline.

Pointing out that every constituency was sanctioned a grant of Rs 25 crore to fix the roads, he asked the officials to expedite the process and raise a request with the finance department if more funds are required. He also asked the officials to utilise Jetpatchers to fill the potholes during the rainy season.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, on Saturday, also said that the government was committed to fixing the pothole problem in the city and work was going on a war footing.

Earlier this week, the government had to face the heat from the citizens and IT industry leaders after DKS said that the companies cannot blackmail the government over infrastructure issues. DKS’s comment came after a tech company CEO posted on X that the company was mulling on moving out of the city owing to the poor state of roads and infrastructure.

In Numbers

Total number of potholes identified: 14,795

Total number of potholes fixed: 6,749

Total number of potholes pending to be fixed: 8,046

White topping works in progress on: 143.68 km of road

Asphalting completed on 401.63 km of roads

Asphalting in progress on 440.92. Of roads

Various development works in progress on 584.60 km of roads