Questioning why potholes occur after every rain, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday said that it was not satisfied with the status report filed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on the action taken to fill potholes across the city.
While observing that the BBMP does not appear to be carrying out road repairs properly, the court directed the civic body to submit details of the technology adopted to repair roads, and whether it had taken the assistance of any experts or agencies for construction and repair of roads.
Also, the court asked the BBMP to inform whether it has got any policy on coordination between various utility service providing agencies in road-cutting as roads are found dug up frequently by agencies for laying cables and pipelines.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the directions while hearing a PIL petition filed in 2015 on lack of proper and regular mechanism for maintenance of roads.
Observing that there has to be some coordination among agencies in road digging works to avoid digging of same road again and again by different agencies for laying cables and pipelines, the Bench also wanted to know what action the BBMP had taken against utility service providers for not completing the works within the time frame after permissions for road-cutting are granted.
From the status report filed by the BBMP, the Bench found that the city’s roads are still not free from potholes as the report itself indicated that nearly 30 km of major roads and 482 km of zonal ward roads are still having potholes.
The Bench adjourned further hearing till February 7 while directing presence of the BBMP’s head of engineering wing.