Mayor visits well-maintained roads during pothole drive

Mayor R Sampath Raj has courted a fresh controversy by choosing to ‘inspect’ the roads in Central Business District (CBD) area that hardly have any potholes compared to those in other zones of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP).

Accompanied by engineers and other BBMP officials, Mayor Sampath Raj on Tuesday set out on a two-hour-long inspection drive. Most of the roads Sampath Raj inspected were developed under the TenderSURE project.

Kickstarting his inspection drive at 9:10 pm from the BBMP headquarters, Raj visited Mission Road, Residency Road, and Richmond Circle on a two-wheeler and wound up the inspection at 11:30 pm.

The majority of the roads he inspected are well maintained.

People have been reporting about potholes, especially on arterial roads and on the outskirts of the city, on social media and the BBMP’s special app.

Sources in the BBMP revealed to DH that Yelahanka Zone had the highest number with 3,902 potholes.

In fact, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara a few days ago claimed that the BBMP had filled more than 5,000 potholes in various areas.

The DCM had tweeted that the civic body has filled 3,862 of them besides clearing 2,910 potholes in Bangalore South zone and in East zone comprising Residency Road and Richmond Circle the BBMP had filled 2,263 out of 2,422 potholes.

However, during the inspection, the mayor could only spot a few potholes. Instead, he noticed that the stretches were waterlogged and ordered slapping of fine Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 lakh on contractors.

He was also found ordering officials to remove garbage blackspots along these stretches.

Despite repeated calls, the mayor was not available for comments on his pothole inspection drive.

Ruling party leader M Shivaraju, Dr Ashok, joint commissioner, East zone, BBMP, S Somashekar, chief engineer, road infrastructure, BBMP and others accompanied him.