Nothing world class about TenderSURE roads

BENGALURU: When conceptualised, TenderSURE roads were termed as world class. The recent heavy rains have, however, exposed their poor quality as well as the tall claims of the officials concerned. Sunday night’s rain left the TenderSURE roads waterlogged in the city yet again, with people wondering if the crores of rupees spent on them literally went down the drain!“It was difficult to commute on the water-logged Cunningham Road on Sunday night. Water was gushing on to the street through manholes and drains, and an unbearable stink made matters worse,” said Arun Jha, a resident of R T Nagar.

According to traffic expert Prof M N Sreehari, TenderSURE roads are world class only in terms of the money spent. The quality of the roads is as bad as normal asphalted roads. “On all TenderSURE roads, footpaths have been made wider without conducting any pedestrian user survey. The paver blocks on the footpath have been laid unscientifically. These are laid on the top layer of the footpath. The ground below them is not properly layered, which results in an uneven top layer and gaps in between the blocks. Whenever it rains, water percolates through them, leading to water stagnation and damaged road surface,’’ he said.

Many of the TenderSURE roads built in the first phase have sewer lines beneath them, including Richmond Road, Residency Road and Cunningham Road. “At times, if there are clogged drains, we end up digging the roads to clear the blockage,’’ said an official.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad agreed. “Ideally for TenderSURE roads, all the utility should be shifted to one side of the road. But in the first phase, BWSSB did not shift sewer lines on some of the roads. This is one of the reasons for flooding,’’ he said. However, he was quick to add that the problem has been rectified in the works undertaken during subsequent phases.
Another reason for water clogging is the sweeping practices. “Pourakarmikas often push dust and waste towards gratings on the road surface that have been put to let rainwater into the drain. This results in clogging,’’ an official said.

However, K T Nagaraj, BBMP Chief (Projects), maintained there is no problem with TenderSURE roads and they are indeed world class. Flooding, Nagaraj claimed, is because of heavy rains. The gratings have small outlets for the rainwater to enter the drains. “If there is more water and smaller outlets, water will obviously flow slowly. On TenderSURE roads, water does not clog for more than three hours,’’ he added.  
Of the proposed 45 TenderSURE roads, nine are complete. Works on another three will be finished soon. Tenders will be called for 13 more roads under  phase II. The cost of these roads was around `7.5 crore per km, including shifting of utilities, wider footpath and bitumen-mixed black-topping. BBMP officials boast of 25 to 30 years durability of these roads.