CM Siddaramaiah directs BBMP to fill potholes in 15 days

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to fix 15,000 potholes across the city in 15 days. The order comes after four people died in accidents caused by bad roads over the past two weeks.

On Tuesday, Siddaramaiah gave the municipal authorities 15 days to fill up all potholes, but the BBMP has said that it is going by the letter of his instruction, and only filling up ditches that technically qualify as potholes.

The new deadline was set by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who inspected Mysuru Road, along with Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George and BBMP officials on Monday afternoon.

BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad chaired a day-long meeting on Wednesday with mayor Sampath Raj, engineers and corporators.

BBMP has laid clear statement on the issue saying that it will just fill up potholes as defined by the BBMP and will not be working on dug-up roads. Roads that are dug up by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd will not be filled by the BBMP.

According to the BBMP, a pothole is a crater that appears on a smooth flowing, tarred road. The crater has to be created by wear and tear, increased vehicular movement or heavy rainfall.

“If a pot-shaped hole or crater shows up on a smooth road, it is termed a pothole,” the mayor said.

Roads that are dug up by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd will not be filled by the BBMP.

On Tuesday, Veena (21), pillion rider died after she was flung off a scooter and crushed by a truck near Devanahalli

On Sunday, a 47-year-old woman, Radha Ajanappa, was killed the same way on the Mysuru Road. On October 2, Anthony Joseph, 55, and his wife Sagai Mary, 53, were killed on the Mysuru flyover when a bus knocked down their two-wheeler. Joseph was trying to avoid a pothole.