While BBMP is busy fixing potholes, Chickpet continues to be ignored

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to visit Bengaluru on November 11, the civic agencies are working overtime to fix the numerous potholes dotting the city roads. BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath has given the deadline of November 5 to civic engineers to repair all potholes in the city.

While many city residents are happy to see potholes that had remained unattended for months are now being fixed with alacrity, but no such luck yet for those residing in Chickpet. They continue to be ignored by civic authorities as the Prime Minister is not scheduled to visit the area.

Hundreds of potholes in many roads of BBMP South Zone, including Chickpet and BTM Layout, which are famous shopping spots in the city, are a nightmare for motorists. "The road was not built properly by the contractors. Due to this there are several open patches and potholes on the road. It has become a nightmare for us.

Every day we witness an accident,” said S. Prabhakar, a local resident. He also added that BBMP is neglecting the demands of the local residents. There are hundreds of potholes on these roads including the Kabbanpet and BVK Iyengar roads. Even when it rains, the road gets filled with mud and it becomes difficult to commute.

Hundreds of vehicles carrying loads of clothes come to the cloth shops in the area every day, increasing the chances of an accident. Activists say that this is the result of unscientific asphalting. BJP leader NR Ramesh has alleged that the reason for present chaos is not following the scientific methods in the construction of roads.

"Most of the contractors don't do their work properly. They only start working when some big thing is happening in the city. Even then the quality of the work is substandard," he said. BBMP chief engineer Mohan Krishna assured that the all the potholes in the city will be fixed by November 5.

The Prime Minister will be inaugurating the 108-feet tall statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda on the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) premises and the newly-built second terminal. He will also be visiting the Krantiveera Sangoli Rayanna station and address a couple of rallies.

When the Prime Minister visited the city last time to attend a function at Ambedkar School of Economics, there was a flurry of road repair works. One such road in Jnanabharathi got damaged within a day after it was thrown open to traffic.