Bangalore: After repeatedly failing to keep its promise to make city roads pothole-free, the BBMP will now use a PYTHON 5000 Pothole Patcher machine, which can repair 30 kilometres of road in eight hours. Work on filling the potholes will begin on Thursday.
The BBMP, which is under severe public criticism for poor maintenance of roads, has selected major roads across all the six zones for repair work.
Some 1,940 kilometres of road, which is roughly 75 per cent of the total road network in the city, will be made pothole free through this machine.
"As per the tender agreement, the company is also given the responsibility of road maintenance for the next three years," said an officer.
At a time five tonnes of bitumen can be loaded in the machine. It can fill up a pothole within three to five minutes.
“We expect the machine can solve the pothole problem at least by the end of this year,” the officer added.
According to BBMP commissioner M. Lakshminarayana, for every kilometre of road, the BBMP will spend Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 depending on the number of potholes.
Bangalore based American Road Technology has brought this Rs 3 crore machine to the city as part of the tender agreement with the BBMP.
According to sources, this is the second time the BBMP has tried to get these pothole-filling machines in the hope of finding an instant solution to the problem.
“When D. Venkatesh Murthy was the mayor, it was planned to purchase eight pothole filling machines. But the plan didn't materialise. We wish this time we achieve success,” said an officer from the road maintenance wing.
