Python’s first target: Pothole in Koramangala

 

Bangalore:  City residents are eagerly waiting for Saturday morning when the wonder machine PYTHON 5000 starts filling up the many potholes on roads in double quick time. 

 

On Friday, a pilot project was taken up near the BDA office. From Saturday the machine will be fully operational.

 

The state government had promised pothole free roads by the end of October. The deadline was revised to December-end because the rain prevented the repair work. According to the BBMP, the machine can repair 30 km of road in eight hours. Speaking to this newspaper an officer said, “1,940 km of road network has been identified for repair works through the PYTHON 5000 machine. It is a new experiment. Garbage disposal and potholes are the two issues that have dented the image of the city in the last few months. We hope this machine will do wonders.”

 

According to the civic commissioner M. Lakshminarayana, this is the cheapest mode of pothole repairing. “Manual work consumes more time and is expensive. But this is both fast and affordable,” he said. “All the six zones under the BBMP will be covered through this initiative,” he added.

 

According to former deputy mayor S. Harish, who was instrumental in bringing this new technology to the city, “This is a long cherished dream. This machine will use state-of- the-art technology. Yearly we can save minimum Rs 20 crore for the BBMP through this machine. I am against BBMP owning such a machine. It should be outsourced to ensure cost effectiveness and maintenance,” he said.

But common citizens feel that a single machine can’t solve the road problems of the city. 

 

“The city has a big network of roads. How can one machine fill up the potholes overnight? BBMP should think of hiring more machines and ensure that the city’s roads are pothole free in the fixed time frame,” says Rajesh Kumar, a tour operator.