HC to BBMP: Fix all potholes in CBD

NT Correspondent

A day after the unfortunate death of 27-year-old Ashwin owing to the pothole near MS Palya in the city, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the BBMP to repair the potholes in the Central Business District areas of Bengaluru city within 15 days.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar said, “The memo has been filed by respondent in compliance of earlier order, giving a work plan to repair potholes in the CBD area of Bengaluru city. We are not satisfied with the said work plan. We have discussed the problem with the Chief Commissioner (BBMP) and Chief Engineer, and want the filling up/repair of potholes in CBD district to be done on war footing and the roads in this area shall be repaired within 15 days.”

The court also directed the BBMP to place on record the survey report and status report of the work done on the next date of hearing. The court took note of the news report about the death of Ashwin, who was injured due to bad road conditions and later succumbed to his injuries.

The bench observed, “When we see a newspaper report of someone dying due to bad roads, we feel guilty.” In its order the bench said, “We all feel very sorry for the untimely death of the young man.”

The court also permitted the impleadement of authorities in the petition for the purpose of better coordination.