Bengaluru’s roads, labyrinth of potholes with no unified data

BENGALURU: Despite orders from Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai himself that the city roads be free of potholes, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engineers have yet to act. On any single platform, there is still no unified data on the number of potholes in Bengaluru. People cannot examine or verify the information because it is not in the public domain.

The engineers announced that they have chosen to abandon the pothole counting method. They measure the length of roads that need to be repaired instead. Potholed and bad stretches are the two types of bad roads identified by the BBMP. They’re also split on how to repair roads — major roads and city roads divisions — as well as how to consolidate and verify roadwork and keep track of data.

According to the BBMP main roads division, 3.88 lakh square meter of bad roads were improved in the city from September 2021, to January 11, 2022, with 1,05,098 square meter categorised as terrible reaches and 683 square meter identified as potholed stretches.

According to officials, 15 kilometres of potholed stretch are pending, and 2,38,521 square metres of problematic sections are pending. However, there is still no comprehensive data on potholed stretches and substandard roads in the city’s interior. According to the engineers, it is the responsibility of each zone to administer and maintain the roads, hence there is no centralised data at the head office. “The BBMP is working hard to meet the Chief Minister’s deadline for improving city roads,” said B S Prahalad, Chief Engineer, BBMP. Given the circumstances, professionals, residents, and even top officials in the Department of Urban Development have raised concerns about meeting deadlines. “The CM talks about transparency, but it doesn’t seem conceivable when there’s no information in one location concerning the number of potholes, much alone poor sections and fixed ones,” an official remarked.