The city traffic police have identified 50 stretches of roads heavily damaged by the recent spate of rains and want the city’s civic body to take up repair works on these stretches immediately, to reduce congestion.
At a meeting of all heads of civic agencies, chaired by Additional Chief Secretaries of Home and Urban Development Departments, it was decided to take up road works on these stretches immediately.
Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath said the city traffic police will also come out with inspection reports on those roads where potholes are causing inconvenience to the motorists. .
“As per our assessment there are around 1,100 potholes whereas the police say it is up to 2,000. We have asked them to carry out an inspection and submit a report about potholes that have not been filled yet. Depending on the report, the BBMP will carry out repair works,” he said.
Monday’s meeting, attended by chiefs of BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, Bescom, BMRCL, and Bengaluru Smart City Ltd., followed a recent review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, in which he directed officials to ease congestion at 10 traffic bottlenecks immediately.
This comes in the light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a recent public rally, promising to ease traffic congestion in the city, ahead of the scheduled civic and Assembly polls.
The heads of various civic agencies will inspect these bottlenecks on Tuesday after 11 p.m. to take stock of the situation and plan interventions.
Mr. Nath said both short-term and long-term measures will be taken to clear bottlenecks at various places, including Hebbal, K.R. Puram, Central Silk Board, and others.
“By taking some immediate measures, we can reduce the congestion by at least 20%. We are ready to take up immediate measures by coordinating with other agencies,” he said.
When quizzed about a report, on the recent fiasco over substandard road works, to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Mr. Nath said that the area where the sinkhole had appeared was not part of the convoy route of the Prime Minister.
The official said that repair works on that location were carried out in November 2021 and due to seepage of water, a portion sunk in April. The official claimed that during the PM’s visit, the pothole was filled and no fresh road works were taken up in that location.
