Jam alert: Over 40 roads set to be white-topped

Amid questions over spending Rs 986.64 crore on white-topping 94.5 km roads in the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has begun floating tenders for converting 41 more roads of 63.24 km in length into concrete stretches.

With this, commuters who are already hit by ongoing work under Phase 1, have to brace themselves for more traffic jams across the city.

The civic body has, in fact, floated tender for next phase before completing Phase 1.

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The work under the second phase has been divided into eight packages. According to the document accessed by DH, most of the stretches chosen are in the congested central business district (CBD) areas. The work is expected to unleash more chaos on roads.

The important stretches that will be converted into concrete roads are Gandhi Bazar road, BTS Road in Wilson Garden, New BEL Road to Sanjay Nagar Main Road, Southend Road from Madhavan Park to Nettakallappa Circle, Seshadripuram Main Road, Yeshwanthpur junction to 18th Cross junction at Malleshwaram, 100 feet and 80 feet roads in Indiranagar, among others.

“The second phase is divided into eight packages where 41 roads of 63.24 km will be white-topped under grants by the state government,” said a BBMP official.

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On Sunday, DH had exposed how white-topping is ruining perfectly good asphalted roads.

“Since there is a delay in the work of Phase 1, we have decided not to give more than 15 roads to one contractor under the next phase. This will ensure one contractor doesn’t bag all the packages,” the official said.

Speaking to DH, N Manjunath Prasad, BBMP Commissioner said, “Phase 2 of white-topping is finalised. Six packages have been already approved and the tender will be floated. Another two packages are yet to be approved. The BBMP plan is to take up white-topping in 1,400 km of city roads in the coming days.”

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“We are trying to minimise people’s problems; the white-topping of roads will last for 25-30 years. We have to take up this project for better, pothole-free roads,” he said.