Karnataka

How a night of rain turned a street in Bengaluru’s Narayanpura into a nightmare

The by-roads connecting Hennur and Tannisandra have been dug up for the past six months, converting the stretch into a slushy mess.

Written by : Apoorva GS

No ambulance, no fire brigades, no vendors, no public transport — the residents of Bengaluru’s Narayanpura residents have been facing this on a daily basis. The by-roads connecting Hennur and Tannisandra, which have been dug up for the past six months, are used by most of the localities. However, there’s no sign of repairing the broken roads and in addition to this, heavy rains like the kind Bengaluru witnessed in the past week, has turned the stretch into a nightmare. 

Vani, a resident of the area, has been suffering from a slipped disk, after travelling on these roads every day. Sometimes her car even gets stuck due to heavy rains for which she has to pay 300 to 400 rupees to JCB or tractors to get her car lifted from the slush. She says, “It takes me at least 45 minutes to cover just 1.5 km to reach Hennur road from my apartment while going for work. It’s horrifying to drive back home from work because there are so many potholes without any warning signs and they are not even visible during the night time.”

A few residents living nearby have also complained about many people who have met with the accidents due to the hundreds of uncovered potholes on the roads. They also shared that vendors, ambulances and fire fighting vehicles refuse to come because of the slushy roads. 

Civic administration is one of the main reasons behind the sludge work. These by-roads were completely tarred a couple of months ago. By giving the reason for some incomplete civic work, the roads were again dug up with a promise of its completion within a certain period of time. However, residents alleged that they haven’t seen any positive results yet. 

Ruchi, another resident in the locality, said, “The roads are dug up every now and then to lay pipelines and underground drainage lines. The construction work and false promises have become a never-ending tale for us. We cannot even walk down these roads due to the massive digging and zillion potholes. There are at least 400 families living in my apartment and a few old age people even have to go for dialysis and for other regular check-ups. But it has become a challenging job for them to walk on these roads.” Ruchi also mentioned a few old age people who had suffered from injuries due to the poor condition of the road.

Several residents had previously taken to Twitter describing the unfortunate situation by uploading videos and pictures of the road condition in a hope that respected authorities will take accountability. 

The residents say they have lodged a complaint on Sahay app and the response is still pending. This is not the first time that they have lodged a complaint, but they did not receive any response to similar complaints filed previously.

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