BBMP’s rapid road experiment comes a cropper

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) pilot project on a ‘rapid road’ seems to have failed with cracks developing within a month of its inauguration by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Under the project, the civic body had re-laid a 375-metre stretch of Old Madras Road in Indiranagar.

The Palike engineers had claimed that heavy vehicles will not experience any vibrations and that it would not develop potholes and can last up to 45 years. On November 22, the Palike completed laying 50 metres of the road and work on another 150-metre stretch was completed the next day following which the road was  opened for public use a day after the construction.

Cracks developed on Benggalur’s first rapid road

The civic body had decided to try out the rapid road technology as it was looking options to speed up road construction work with minimal disturbance to traffic movement. So the engineers decided to try the prefabricated concrete slabs, fastened with steel cables.

For regular white-topping work, it takes at least 20 days to complete a 1 km stretch of road. However, after the rapid road developed cracks at several places, citizens have blamed the civic body for the poor quality road work.