With the Assembly elections round the corner, the State government is patting its back on the slew of ‘development works’ undertaken in the city. Part of the works executed is the development of 112 roads, which fall under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, by the Public Works Department.
However, now the two agencies are crossing swords over the development of these roads. The BBMP has written to the PWD highlighting the poor quality of roads. Some of the roads that were taken up by the PWD are Padarayanapura Main Road, Old Mysore Road and Dr. Jeevaraj Alva Road.
In a letter to the PWD, BBMP’s chief engineer has stated that the condition of the roads developed by the PWD had deteriorated and that the civic body has been receiving complaints from the citizens. He pointed out that the PWD is liable to repair the roads. “The BBMP has apprised PWD engineers of this several times. However, they have paid no heed,” he stated in the letter, a copy of which is with The Hindu.
Following heavy rains that lashed the city between August and September last year, the condition of many roads worsened. The State government had then taken a call to hand over 112 roads to the PWD. This had caused an uproar in the BBMP council, with councillors from the opposition BJP alleging that the Congress government was looting public money.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad told The Hindu that the roads are under a three-year maintenance period. “The roads were assigned to the PWD by the government. They are liable to maintain the same for a period of three years. Approximately ₹700 crore was spent on development of these 112 roads,” he said.
PWD Additional Chief Secretary M. Lakshminarayan maintained that the BBMP’s chief engineer could not make such generalising statements. “Let the BBMP list the roads whose condition has deteriorated, as is being claimed. The PWD’s Quality Control Wing can then undertake an inspection, along with a coordinating officer from the BBMP. The sooner we get the list of roads, the better it is so that we can immediately act on repairing them,” he said.
