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Implement these 6 thing before you waste our money again on potholes


Hon. Mayor Gautam Jain and BBMP commissioner Anil Kumar have embarked on an humongous task of fixing all the potholes in Bengaluru by November 10th. While the intentions are appreciated we also want them to succeed. This action on war footing was necessary considering the situation of roads in Bengaluru. Looking at the pot hole history of BBMP, every year an emergency situation is created and crores of tax payers money goes down the drain in the name of fixing pot holes. It appears like a deja vu of 2017 October where the then mayor Smapat Raj had given a 15 days deadline to fill all potholes in Bengaluru. So what is being done and the way it is being done is just a waste of public money and these potholes will haunt us back in less than 3 weeks unless the Mayor gets the commissioner to implement these 6 things.

  1. 'You cannot fix what you cannot measure' applies aptly for the Bengaluru pot hole situation. Neither the officials nor the people's representatives know exactly how many potholes exist on which street but are working on November 10th deadline. Worst part is the same engineer counts the pot holes, fixes the pot holes, and declares the roads as pot hole free and it is the same engineer under whose watch bad quality roads were laid in first place. When Delhi encountered a pot hole problem, the AAP government teamed up its MLAs and area Engineer to survey the roads and take pictures with geo location and upload the before and after pictures. 1200 km survey was completed in less than a week and pot holes were fixed to satisfaction in 15 days. So its recommended that you team up our public representatives (the corporators) and the ward engineers for the survey. BBMP already has the "fix my street" app. Put it to use, make the data public and let us all involve and monitor the progress to ensure the potholes are really fixed.
  2. 'No accountability means no responsibility': Blacklisting the contractor of the flyover that recently developed a pothole was a right step. But the same flyover was inspected and certified OK by a BBMP work inspectors and it is quite surprising none of them are suspended or placed under investigation. This inaction on the officials raises suspicion on the commissioner. If the commissioner is scared of taking action on junior officials then it is the onus of they mayor to intervene and take immediate action on the officials and order investigations. While you have powers to blacklist contractors for potholes on the flyover, the same power should be used to black list the contractors that lay the bad roads as well and sack the work inspectors who certified these roads. Do not show double standards in fixing accountability. 
  3. 'BBMP has blood on its hands': Hundreds of people have lost lives because of pothole related accidents, thousands have been permanently or temporarily disabled and lakhs have faced health issues due to traffic and physical injuries. The tax paying citizen deserve quality roads for their hard earned money. We demand a compensation of 10 crore rupee for every pothole related death, 1 crore rupee for disability and 10 lakh rupee for hospitalisation. This compensation should not come from public money but to be paid by the officials responsible to maintain roads in respective wards. If the mayor is not hand in glove with the officials then he should implement this on immediate basis.
  4. 'Water is the enemy of tar' : Primary reason for roads to develop potholes, apart from bad quality work, is water logging. It is not the bad rain but a bad drain that causes pot holes. Running water on the streets and water logging due to malfunctioning drainage system causes bad road conditions. De-silt all the drains, fix the drains to avoid blocks, create proper banking for water to quickly drain off the street. And please note that de-silting the drains does not mean dumping the garbage in the gutter back on to the street.
  5. 'People pay for footpaths and roads and get broken pavements and pot holes': Every tender has a service life of work undertaken. The roads being laid do not even withstand for six months. Why should tax payers pay for the road and again pay for the potholes? How many roads have lasted their service life if they have not why are they not being repaired and maintained by contractors? Why are the people of Bengaluru paying for the sins of contractors and BBMP engineers? Do not let public money go down the drain, enforce contractors to service the roads for the time period as per the contract.
  6. 'A stitch in time saves nine': Another major reason for potholes is unplanned maintenance works and road digging. BBMP has to develop a civic works cell that specialises in minor repairs and damage fixing. This cell should have the authority to permit repair and maintenance works of all agencies in planned manner and own up the responsibility of fixing the damages caused by such works on the roads. If the small patches are fixed properly in time it will avoid bad road conditions that develop over time.

It is time to learn from history and other developed cities and invest our time, energy and money for human development and not limit ourselves to fixing potholes year after year. Unless the above steps are taken in tandem with fixing the pot holes it will be a futile exercise not worthy of appreciation.

About the Author

Basavaraj Mudigoudar is an entrepreneur and engineer by profession. Volunteers as head of Policy and Research at Aam Aadmi Party, Karnataka
Twitter: @Basavarajsm_

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Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 9, 2019 at 10:41 PM

    You are right. But the main villain is corruption involved in the execution of work. Area mla councilor, a bribe of say 15 to 20 percent then comes junior engineer, assistant engineer executive engineer and the next engineer . About 30 percent. Contractor profit 20 percent . What remains is say 30 percent. What can you expect the quality of work . No bbmp road work can survive one full year. So sad situation . No action taken on engineers or on contractors for shoddy work . Unless citizen elect honest representatives nothing will change .

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