BBMP’s Fix My Street app throws up 11,000 fresh potholes across Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was all set to announce pothole-free city in the New Year, but it looks like the civic body has a lot more work to do. The Palike has received 11,000 fresh complaints of potholes on its Fix My Street app from across the city.

The BBMP had set a deadline to announce pothole-free roads, but now, officials themselves admit that they have failed to meet the deadline. Another major problem is that the Federation of Quarry and Crushers Association was on strike for the last 15 days and had stopped supply of crusher stones, sand and other building construction materials, which had hampered road work too.

The production of jelly stones has completely stopped from the last 15 days.

Palike Chief Engineer B S Prahalad said, “We are facing problems in filling potholes due to the crushers’ association strike. The engineers are making full efforts to completing pothole filling and patch work in the city. The Fix My Street (FMS) app now open to the public and they can uploads pictures with detailed information. So far, we have received 11,000 complaint of potholes received through the app, and these are yet to be filled”.

The Chief Engineer further said, “We have not been able to work for the last 15 days because of the chrushers’s strike and there was no supply jelly stones. We will complete the work soon, but we cannot say that potholes won’t appear as lakhs of vehicles ply on the roads every day. The Palike has filled 24,000 potholes as of today. We will try to fill all the freshly reported potholes in 48 hours after receiving the complaint”.

BBMP Chief engineer Prahalad said the engineers are putting maximum effort to filling potholes.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Quarry and Crusher Owner’s Association ended their strike on Saturday after meeting Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. The federation had put forward three major demands before the government — government should give permission for legal mining, royalty rules should be simplified and reduced and licensing process for mining should be simplified.

Ravindra Shetty, president, Federation of Karnataka Quarry and Crusher Owners’ Association said after withdrawing the strike, “We have no other intention to be on strike for 15 long days. We have asked the government to legalise mining and assessment should be done after amendment to the Mining Act”.

Ravindra Shetty, president, Federation of Karnataka Quarry and Crusher Owners’ Association, briefing the media after the meeting with the Chief Minister.

“Many people claims that we are doing illegal mining, but it is wrong and we just wanted a logical end to our problems. All districts’ president and members have participated. The CM also responded positively to our demand and promised that he will discuss the issue in the cabinet at a suitable time”, Ravindra Shetty added.

Not only the BBMP, even commoners suffered by the strike as building construction works were stopped across the state due to short supply of construction material and the prices of sand and stones doubled. After 15 days, the quarry and crusher owners resumed normal operations from Saturday, much to the relief of builders.

Now, the BBMP hopes to taken up pothole filling work soon rid the city of potholes in another 15 days.