BBMP misses second deadline to fill potholes, blames rains

Revenue Minister R Ashoka had set a October 10 deadline for the BBMP to complete filling up the potholes on city roads

Kasturba Road, one of the main thoroughfares in central Bengaluru, is riddled with potholes just a month after getting a “smart” makeover under the eponymous project. Credit: DH Photos/S K Dinesh

Civic authorities have missed a second deadline to fill up potholes in the last month-and-a-half, which they blamed on the rains.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka had set a October 10 deadline for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to complete filling up the potholes on city roads. Officials claim they were on track to finish the task before rain played spoilsport.

“We were on schedule,” BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta insisted. “Prolonged rains slowed our pace of work. It also affected production of hot mix.”

Gupta said officials were keeping a close watch on the weather to resume work once conditions were suitable. Shockingly though, the civic body has no accurate count of roads punctuated with potholes despite receiving hundreds of complaints from citizens.

“Filling potholes is a continuous process,” said a senior BBMP official, adding that the number of roads with potholes went up from 51 “a while ago” to 74 after the heavy rains.

Another BBMP official mentioned 29 as the number of roads with potholes when the team last surveyed. “We’re neither able to fill potholes nor determine where new potholes have come up in the week-long rains,” the official said.

Ironically, the newly-laid Kasturba Road under the Smart Cities Mission in central Bengaluru has developed potholes. Ashoka had pushed his original deadline of September 20 to October 10 after the BBMP chief commissioner cited weather disruptions to seek an extension.

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