Motorists say Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike doesn’t care about pothole-riddled Old Madras Road

BENGALURU: Right in front of Nagarabhivruddi Bhavan, the headquarters of Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) on Old Madras Road (OMR), a pothole in the middle of the service road greets commuters. In fact, this pothole is one among many in the vicinity.
“It’s such a shame that a road in front of KUIDFC is in such bad shape. This is too risky for two-wheeler and bicycle riders,” said Avinash Kumar, a motorist.
OMR is one of the most accident-prone stretches in the city. Yet, several parts of the section, especially between Swamy Vivekananda Road Metro station and Bhaskaran Road, are in a terrible state, dotted with craters. “This is a major road but has been neglected for the past few years. For BBMP, any area beyond Trinity Circle, Hudson Circle and Mehkri Circle is not on the priority list,” Kumar said.
Vivek Kalkur, a techie, said: “The government wasted money on whitetopping a relatively good stretch of Outer Ring Road between Benniganahalli and Hebbal and the same was dug up again for Metro work. But whitetopping of this vulnerable OMR stretch was never taken up.”
Tejaswi KR, another regular commuter, said the road has been bad for at least 6-7 years. “Patchwork makes the ride extremely bumpy on the stretch between the junctions of Murphy Road and Indiranagar 100 Ft Road. I wonder why the local MLA has not taken cognizance of it yet.”
Vajapeyam Srivatsa, a netizen, tweeted: “Crores of rupees released for all Bengaluru wards recently and what is happening to all the funds? We can discount 40% and expect at least 60% work, looks like that is also not happening very sad (sic).”
A BBMP official, however, said: “Road relaying work has started on Old Madras Road and will be finished soon.”
BS Prahalad, chief engineer (road and infrastructure), BBMP, was unavailable for comments.