BBMP hits the pothole, jolted into action

When the monsoon sets in, stepping out onto Bengaluru's roads is nothing short of an act of daring. Potholes filled with murky waters that belie their depth are a bane to pedestrians and for motorists. The BBMP Commissioner began his nightly inspections on Sunday and residents will know by the end of the week whether potholes have been filled. Civic officials should look at rainfall patterns over the last 150 years, say experts, if they are to make headway. And why is that when roads laid with plastic are rain-proof, Bengaluru fails to step up? Or do contractors make money as the city suffers, asks Aknisree Karthik

It’s that time of the year again when motorists and bikers have to guard against their spines being shaken up and pedestrians need to do quite some searching before finding a safe patch of road to walk on. With rain lashing the city for the last few days, not only is there waterlogging in many parts, but  the roads have developed crater-like potholes too in several areas,  making the lives of both commuters and pedestrians miserable. 

While BBMP Commissioner, Manjunath Prasad went out inspecting the roads Sunday night, the people have no faith in his ability to fix the problem, which crops up regularly with every monsoon despite many such inspections and promises of pothole-filling made in the past.

Lamenting the continued damage to city roads in heavy rain,  managing trustee and CEO of  BPAC, Revathy Ashok says civic officials need to base their plans on data of the rainfall pattern of the city over the past 150 to 200 years, Bengaluru's population explosion and other factors to break this cycle. "We have been insisting that the civic body  take up white topping of all major roads as this is a great alternative to tarring of roads, which gets washed away in heavy rain. White topped roads are more durable compared to the regular ones" she points out. Suggesting that the BBMP make provision for rain water to run off the roads, she notes that flooding is a complex problem that has to be addressed with both short and long term measures like cleaning and desilting of drains, rainwater harvesting, and creation of percolation pits. 

Primrose Road

“Also, experts and citizens should be roped in to assess the quality of the road works done before clearing the bills of contractors," she advises. Agreeing with her, founder member of Citizens' Action Forum, N.S. Mukunda,  points out that in Kerala and New Delhi citizens do monitor road laying. “They are given certain guidelines to help them verify the work done and they need  to tick 'yes' or 'no' against them. If 'no' gets more ticks then the bill is not passed.We really need such  citizen monitoring with the help of ward committee members,” he stresses, noting that contractors are expected to follow procedures for road asphalting taking into account the temperature of the bitumen, compaction, gravel constituency, road thickness and so on to make sure it sustains in all conditions. 

On the second day too, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad inspected rain-affected areas and potholes in West zone on Monday night. At Kino theatre and Anand Rao Circle in Seshadripuram, he directed engineers and contractors to fill the potholes within 48 hours to ensure safety of citizens.

“Kino Theatre is a water-logging area. Now, an underground pipe has been laid and the water is allowed to go into the drain at Mantri Mall. Unauthorised OFC cables will be removed and criminal cases will be filed against them. Night inspection will be taken up at Dasarahalli and Yelahanka on Tuesday. Again second round of inspection will be carried out at East and West zones to check if the potholes are covered. Failing which, action will be initiated against engineers and contractors concerned,” he said.

Solutions suggested by civic activists 

• Let citizens and experts keep a tab on road relaying 
• Clear bills  of contractors  only after such assessment. If the work done doesn't match the standard norms laid down for road thickness, temperature of bitumen, composition, required slope and so on , the bills should not be settled. 
• White top major roads in the city  as the durability of white topped roads is much higher than that of regular ones.
• Take steps like clearing the shoulder drains and stormwater drains,creating percolation pits, and rainwater harvesting  to prevent waterlogging  of roads . 

Number of potholes in the city several times more than BBMP data
The BBMP is at it again, reeling off a random figure to quantify the innumerable potholes in the city.  This time it says there are around 5,000 potholes in Bengaluru and that you will find most of them in the east zone. Even more astonishingly, it claims to have filled over 3,000 potholes already. To add to the impression that it is a concerned civic body, BBMP commissioner, Manjunath Prasad went on an inspection Sunday night to see for himself the ongoing work on filling of potholes.

But not surprisingly, people are no longer willing to buy the civic body’s posturing, arguing that if it was as concerned as it claims to be, the city’s roads would not suffer so much damage in every spell of heavy rain to begin with.

“We have potholes that reduce the average speed of vehicles and the big crater-like ones result in traffic pile -ups. The BBMP's claims are merely a sham,” says Mr Lokesh Naidu, a resident of Kurubarahalli.

"Of the 12,000 kms of roads in the city not even a  100 kms are likely to be free of potholes in my opinion. Even if we assume that a kilometer of road has just 20 potholes, the number of potholes in the city would be over two lakh,” reasons Mr N S Mukunda, founder member of Citizens' Action Forum.

 Ms Revathy Ashok of BPAC too believes that the number of potholes in the city is several times the figure quoted  by the BBMP. Efforts to contact BBMP Commissioner for his response to the people’s criticism went in vain.

Laying roads with plastic is the ideal solution: Mr Rasool Khan, director of K K Plastic Waste Management, whose company was roped in by BBMP to lay roads with Bitumen mixed with plastic
Lalbagh Road and Richmond Road were the first in the city to be re-laid using bitumen mixed with recycled plastic. We began laying roads using plastic in 2002 and covered over 3,000 kms of road in the city till 2014.

The durability and lifespan of roads laid using plastic is almost double that of the regular ones.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself  has encouraged the use of plastics for laying of roads and guidelines have been issued by the Indian Road Congress on the use of the technology for the country's roads, but for reasons best known to the BBMP,  laying of such roads has been stopped in the city.

It's hard to understand why as these roads are the ultimate solution  given the weather conditions  in Bengaluru. It's no secret that its   roads  are constantly damaged in heavy rain. This can be prevented by use of recycled plastic in road laying as it will not allow rain water to seep in and will stop them from being damaged. Also, plastic acts as a strong binding agent for the tar and makes the road stronger.

There is no dearth of plastic in the city, which generates over 200 tonnes of it. But sadly, all of it goes to the landfills, harming the environment.

To sum up, there are two major advantages of using plastic to lay roads. It allows proper disposal of plastic waste and also provides better roads. Our company holds a patent for the technology required.