Day after PM’s visit, roads crumble in Bengaluru, crores go down the drain

BENGALURU: Believe it or not, some of the city’s roads, which were spruced up at a cost of Rs 23 crore ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, started crumbling by the time the PM was back in New Delhi.

The road next to the Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics in Jnana Bharati, which was widened for a 3.5-km stretch at a cost of Rs 6 crore, has caved in at one point. At Kommaghatta too, the freshly done road is already in bad shape.

As soon as the PM’s 2-day visit to the state was confirmed, the BBMP got down to fixing roads wherever the PM was to attend programmes. A fresh layer of asphalt was laid and all the road markings were given a fresh coat of paint.

A road in Kommaghatta has been patched with cement concrete, which is also coming off.

By the time the PM could return to Delhi, layers of asphalt had started coming off. In Kommaghatta, patches have been filled with cement concrete and the pebbles are already coming off.

Garbage dumped by the roadside in Kommaghatta.

BBMP Special Commissioner, who addressed the media on Thursday, said the asphalt was coming off due to some technical issue and the rain. Work on relaying those roads has been taken up at the contractors’ cost, he added.