A video of vehicles struggling to traverse a terribly potholed stretch on the Bengaluru-Mysuru road was shared by a photojournalist on Twitter, triggering much outrage over the state of the infrastructure in the city. “Potholes on the road? Or road in between potholes ? Welcome to the IT capital of India. Bengaluru-Mysuru road near Nice road junction with multiple potholes making motorists difficult to use the stretch in #Bengaluru,” the tweet read, showing vehicles trying to navigate through 40-odd potholes on a 500m stretch.
The tweet led to outrage due to the city’s continuous pothole menace, forcing authorities to immediately start work on patching the road. Social media users compared the road to craters on the moon, and dubbed Bengaluru the ‘pothole capital of the world.’ Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw called it ‘shocking n shameful (sic)”.
A visit to the spot shows that not just the 500m road, the entire stretch leading from Kengeri metro station to NICE Road is covered with potholes. The condition only worsens when it rains, leaving motorists to navigate cautiously because of the administrative indifference, thereby causing traffic jams as well.
On Wednesday, June 8, when TNM visited the location, JCBs were at work and rollers were leveling the Bengaluru-Mysore road with wet mix. As per a report by The New Indian Express, the road falls under the jurisdiction of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and was taken up for construction in 2017 by the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), who had then blamed the poor condition of roads on the blocked drains near the junction. The repair work is still ongoing, and a portion of the road has been covered. The rest of the road, however, is still in a poor condition. TNM has reached out to the BMRCL for a comment, and a response is awaited.
Engineers from BMRCL told the Times of India that a few layers of wet mix will be laid on the stretch. “Soon after the drain is linked to the other end, we will completely asphalt the stretch by building 60 to 70 metre railings so that water doesn’t come on to the road,” the engineer told the paper.
On Monday, the Karnataka High Court directed the civic agency, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), to work out its contract with American Road Technology and Solutions Pvt Ltd, the agency to be tasked with filling potholes. BBMP was told to submit a zone-wise report within 10 days.