Bengaluru
Potholes have remained a menace in Bengaluru and turned out to be death traps for many in the past few months. In the latest incident, a 55-year-old bike-borne became casualty after a tractor ran over him when he slipped while trying to avoid a pothole, police said on Tuesday.
While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has once again missed the November 15 deadline to fix all potholes in the city, nine people have lost their lives due to road accidents since October 2021.
The city’s civic body has been blaming the rains and rough weather for potholes developing on the roads each monsoon. But activists said corruption, structural issues and lack of accountability are the main concerns for the city’s crumbling road infrastructure.
Srinivas Alavilli, a civic activist, said it’s not the funds, but lack of an effective delivery system which is a concern.
“They are managing things centrally as opposed to a zonal or ward level. If more supervision happens at a ward committee level, there’s a better chance at better quality roads,” Alavilli said.
“We keep on talking about fixing potholes. It’s like saying, we’ll fix the fever instead of seeing the reason we’re seeing it so many times. Every time you get a fever, you take a tablet and the fever goes away. But why is it coming? That’s because something else is permanently wrong with the body, right?” Alavilli said.
Alavilli pointed out that while many cities get rainfall like Bengaluru, not many face such pothole issues. “Clearly, the guidelines, the contracts, quality checks that we have are not enough. This requires a comprehensive relook at guidelines for laying roads inside the BBMP area for the long-term solution.”
Civic activist Sandeep Anirudhan concurred with Alavilli and said structural issues are the major cause for potholes in Bengaluru.
“The BBMP is saying we’re getting potholes, so we’ll do white-topping. The point is, is that really the solution? Let’s look at other countries from different geographies and different climatic conditions…they’re all using bitumen asphalt. There is no problem in their roads and no potholes,” Anirudhan said.
He said, if technology is not the problem, then the issue could be with road laying or with the engineers.
“It’s possible that they are not laying it right. Then it’s an engineering problem, right? The IRC(Indian Road Congress) has a code for road-laying etc. So, are they following it? If they are following it and still getting potholes then there’s something wrong with IRC,” Anirudhan said.
“I’ve spoken to engineers and they say it is very simple which engineers can implement easily. So, does this mean that we have engineers who don’t know their jobs?” Anirudhan questioned.
Anirudhan also pointed out that there could be a conspiracy of corruption which is resulting in the bad condition of roads. “That is, if they build the roads properly, then there will be no repeat contracts. If this is being done intentionally, then they are murdering people. That is not acceptable.”
A lack of coordination between civic agencies is proving to be a major impediment leading to potholes, Anirudhan said.
On Tuesday, BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Girinath blamed the rainy weather for the last four days for missing the deadline of filling all potholes and said the target will be met by November 19. While the Karnataka hight court has pulled up the civic body several times, the BBMP has missed the deadline time and again.
Alavilli said lack of accountability is entirely the problem of not having elections. “In BBMP, there is no accountability because there have been no elections, no councillors…And if you don’t hold elections for two years, who should you hold accountable?”
The elections to the BBMP have been delayed since its term expired in September 2020 over delay in reservation and delimitation exercise.
“It’s not a technological challenge. It’s lack of political will, collusion with scammers. The problem with our government is that it’s corrupt, it’s not transparent and the BBMP is not accountable. That is the biggest problem,” Anirudhan said.
“We need to change the strategy to address the issue at the lowest level possible. In Bengaluru, there are three levels — BBMP, zones and wards. My opinion is that the more work happens at a ward level the better quality work you get,” Alavilli said.
