Water and roads are a disastrous combination. If roads are not kept free of water their quality gradually deteriorates. The city has been receiving heavy rainfall since August and while we cannot control nature, we can always keep our infrastructure ready for the worst.
Roads and footpaths that have been remodelled under TenderSURE in the city have clearly not used the right technology. When experts in the field are not consulted roads that are touted to be of international standards are bound to be flooded in heavy rain. If you cannot keep the roads free of water, there is no point in boasting about bringing all service utilities together at one spot.
Going by the norms, when laying roads you need to use 5.5 per cent bitumen. But is this followed ? Unfortunately, there isn't any monitoring to check the quality of the roads laid under TenderSURE. Although the project is all about providing wide footpaths for pedestrian comfort, a city like Bengaluru doesn't need this.
What it needs are wide roads instead. But sadly, no standards have been followed even when building footpaths under TenderSURE.
Let’s compare the slabs laid on footpaths under TenderSURE to our teeth. When we lose a tooth, the ones next to it tend to become weak. The same thing happens to the slabs as well. When they are not laid evenly without the necessary foundation, they tend to become loose, affecting pedestrians.
The writer is traffic expert and advisor to the state government on infrastructure.
