Good Shed Road repair misses many deadlines

By Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru, Jan.18 For Shopkeepers, residents and commuters on Good Shed Road, it’s been a long ordeal as the white-topping work on the road is still incomplete after BBMP missed several deadlines due to various reasons.

The works on the road started during August 2021 with a deadline of 90 days to finish white-topping on it by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The 1.3 km stretch was hence closed for vehicular movement and a detour of two kilometres was arranged by the Bengaluru Traffic Police for motorists commuting from Majestic, KR Market flyover (Dr BR Ambedkar ramp) and Old Mysuru Road.

“Many things have changed since the white-topping work began here,” Basavaraj, a shopkeeper on the road, told News Trail. “We have seen many shops close and business taking a hit during the last four months. It was the time when our businesses were struggling to resume after Covid-induced lockdowns. Most of us feared that the work may get delayed as was the case during the white-topping of Cottonpet Road,” he said.

Earlier in 2019, the whitetopping work on Cottonpet Road was undertaken by the BBMP and it took two years to finish the project which reportedly affected the commercial establishments around it. The traders said that most of them still park their vehicles far from shops due to on-going work.

Naveen Kumar V, a daily commuter on the road, said that he has to spend extra hours on the jammed roads below the flyover, especially in the evening. “The closure of the road has become a regular affair now. The authorities don’t seem to understand how this disturbs the daily schedule of the commuters along the stretch,” he told News Trail.

The incomplete work is not only causing inconvenience to the shopkeepers and commuters but is also endangering the lives of people who stay near the road. With all the dust, bricks, cement, debris and other aggregates spread around, the area has become a dust bowl and the changing weather of the city is only exacerbating the condition turning it hazardous for the residents’ health.

According to the sources within the BBMP, the white-topping work had to be completed in two phases within three months. In the first phase, the civic body had planned to work on the stretch between the flyover ramp and Beli Mutt. In the second, the road was planned to stretch up till Cottonpet Cross Road.

Speaking to News Trail, M Lokesh, Chief Engineer (Project) said, “We are close to completing and wrapping up the work on Goods Shed Road. There are a lot of aspects to be taken care of while white-topping is done on the roads. Everything has to be planned out well including drainage, the footpaths, the road edges among other things, before asphalting. Almost all the work here is in the completion stage. The only remaining work is that it has to be connected to the flyover and Cottonpet Cross Road,” he said.

Some residents and traders claim that they had already predicted that the road work will take long and had requested the BBMP officials to speed up the works instead of taking their time, as was the case of Cottonpet Road.