Nearly three months after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai shocked everyone by saying the government had spent a whopping Rs 20,060 crore in the last five years on maintaining roads in Bengaluru, the BBMP has come up with a list of streets spanning 168.21 km that require immediate repairs worth dozens of crores.
The list of damaged roads drawn up by the BBMP's major roads division clearly shows the Rs 20,060 crore hasn't been well-spent. Senior BBMP officials assessing the roads say that of the city's 1,261.36 km of major roads (arterial and sub-arterial), nearly 168 km of roads are not motorable and need immediate reconstruction.
As an indication of how bad the roads are, the civic body is in the process of colour-coding them based on the extent of damage and present condition. The 168.21-km roads that are not motorable fall under the 'Red' category. Another 272.92 km of roads have been categorised into Yellow and 99.49 km into Green (see the table). The yellow and green roads are in motorable condition with the immediate requirement of bitumen mix coat due to worn-out surface like potholes," a senior engineer said.
The list, reviewed by DH, shows that a total of 441.13 km of roads fall under the yellow or red category and are in dire need of repairs.
This apart, over 50 per cent of the roads in various parts of the city are not maintained by the BBMP as they are either undergoing development or the works have been recently completed and they are maintained by the contractor as per the Defect Liability Period (DLP) clause. "We just have to monitor the progress of work and make sure they are maintained well," a senior BBMP official said.
The BBMP is chalking out an action plan to develop these roads and may soon approach the government for funds. "No capital investment is required for roads under the green category. But the other two categories will need a huge capital investment as they need to be reconstructed fully," the official said. Some of the red roads also fall under the 110 villages that were added to the city limits in 2007. "Works have been approved for these roads and will begin soon," he said.
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