After being pulled up by Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George on the pathetic condition of the roads with nearly 30,000 potholes developing within Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, the civic body has decided to change its strategy in fixing potholes.
Earlier, civic officials were waiting for the rain to subside to use hot mix to fill up potholes. However, over the last week alone, the condition of Bengaluru’s roads have worsened with several stretches even on arterial roads disintegrating.
On Saturday, Manjunath Prasad, BBMP Commissioner, said a meeting with all asphalting contractors and executive engineers would be held on Sunday and they would be asked to fix the roads with cold mix.
“As it is raining almost every day, we intend to not wait for the roads to dry and will repair the roads with cold mix,” said Mr. Prasad.
Cold mix is an emulsion with aggregates (jelly) that is used to fill potholes. The method is not as effective as using hot mix, where jelly and asphalt are mixed and heated to 150 degrees Celsius and maintained at 100 degree Celsius. After applying a tack coat, the hot mix is poured in to the depression and rolled over. Three python machines have been deployed to fill the potholes in the city.
Mr. George held a review meeting with BBMP officials and the Mayor G. Padmavathi on Saturday, and asked officials to fill potholes and dredge drains on priority. Palike officials say it has filled more than 15,000 potholes so far.
Online monitoring
Citizens can now monitor road work online. The BBMP Commissioner told Mr. George that data on road work related to 91,000 roads in the city had been uploaded to the BBMP website.