Bengaluru: “If the state government thinks potholes can’t be filled during the rainy season, it’s talking through complete ignorance,” says urban planning expert Vivek Menon. The stale excuse of the government continues this monsoon too, like every year. Days before the monsoons arrived in the state, the government was confident of filling all the potholes by the month of May. But what could possibly have prevented them? The rain gods who seemed to have a ‘vendetta’ against the state government!
“Didn’t the BBMP officials know there would be pre-monsoon showers in May? Why did the government announce a deadline which could not be met in the first place?” asks technical advisory committee member R.K Misra. According to experts, there are anomalies in the BBMP’s method of approach to fill potholes. Mr Menon, explains, “Filling tar inside potholes is not a solution to fixing potholes in the long run. Tar has to bond with underlying layers and that happens only when potholes are cut out up to 8 inches and are treated at the sub-base or at least the base layer. When this is adopted, water will not stagnate and it will flow away. But what the BBMP does is dump tar and smoothen the surface. Every time it rains, the tar washes off.”
Despite having sustainable solutions and advanced technologies, the state government has lagged behind in many ways. In 2002, when a brother duo offered to asphalt the roads using plastic on an experimental basis, the project was approved with mixed reactions.
Even after asphalting nearly 2,000 km including major stretches like MG Road, Trinity Circle and Old Airport Road, the government had not shown interest to use plastic as an additive to strengthen the quality of roads. About 10 per cent of plastic waste is used as a binding material with tar in order to retain the tar over a long period of time.
Mr Menon adds that using additives help in increasing the strength of roads. Echoing similar views, Mr Misra points out, “Nearly 10 years ago the Leela Palace Road was asphalted using plastic. Except for water leakage and water stagnation, there were no potholes on this road. Very sparse, patch-up works were taken up on this road. Why doesn’t the BBMP consider this to be a solution?” He suggests that unless quality of works and material do not improve, the quality of roads too will not improve.
How plastic works on roads
- About 5 five tons of plastic waste is bought and collected by K K Plastic Waste Management Private Limited every day
- The plastic waste is cleaned and shred into bits
- The bits are dried for nearly a week
- The shredded plastic is then taken to a hot mixing plant, where it is mixed with bitumen to make roads
Plastic finds no takers in state
The state government which sends its elected representatives and officials to learn forward technologies abroad has turned a bind eye to one if-its-kind resources in the state. City’s exclusive and the only organization in the country to produce plastic out of plastic waste, which can be used for asphalting roads, has no takers. Ironically, the company KK Plastic Waste Management Pvt Ltd has customers outside Karnataka, and even foreign experts have given the plastic-for-tar technology thumbs up. But, the reluctant state government has so far not responded to the firm’s request to use their plastic for asphalting roads.
Except during the initial years when the project was launched in 2002, little plastic has been used for repairing our roads. The firm has so far used 10,000 tonnes of plastic for asphalting roads in the state and has covered over 2,000 km. It produces 30 metric tones of plastic every day for various construction works including asphalting roads. Experts say plastic as an additive for tar increases the longevity of roads.
If neighbouring states have good roads, why not Bengaluru?
When the state government announced it would fill potholes within a month and even announced Rs 1 lakh for every ward to fill potholes, it was too good to be true. Not surprisingly, it has missed its own deadline, yet again. The only excuse: we are waiting for the rains to stop.
Season after season, the BBMP finds excuses to delay infrastructure works. The question, however, remains, when other places like Kerala, Goa and Chennai have good roads despite heavy rainfall, what stops the BBMP from providing good roads.
Ask district-in-charge minister Ramalinga Reddy, he points fingers at the BJP for not asphalting major roads. “Road maintenance works had taken a beating in the last five years and all the major roads were completely ignored. It has appeared that the roads which have been asphalted in the last two years are in relatively good condition. We need time to asphalt roads which do not have strength,” he says.
Various sources suggest that the fallout between the BBMP and the contractors, has led to the distancing of many contractors from the taking up road repair works. Mr Reddy, who doesn’t disagree, admits that they are trying to do damage control. “The contractors were not paid for at least two years and they did not come forward to participate in the tenders. However, we have now ensured that most of the road contractors would be given their dues,” he maintains.
Mr Reddy concludes that in the span of next six months, not major roads alone, but even sub-arterial roads would be in a motorable condition.
Coordination panel nod must for digging up roads
Before any government agency takes up road digging and other related works, it should compulsorily take the permission of the coordination committee, said BBMP commissioner G. Kumar Naik on Monday. Addressing a meeting with the chiefs of BWSSB, Bescom, KPTCL, BMRCL and BDA, Mr Naik said that roads were dug up in various parts of the city due to lack of coordination.
“In many areas, agencies are digging up roads soon after they are asphalted. This needs to be stopped. Agencies should submit their work schedule for the next six months. It should include both short term and long term works,” he said. Every agency should appoint a nodal officer who will share project details and represent the agency in the weekly coordination committee meeting, he said.
Mr Naik also suggested that the agencies should make special allocations in their budget for restoring roads, if they have to dig up roads. Mr Naik directed the BWSSB to restore roads in 110 villages, where it has dug up roads to lay water and sanitary pipelines. “All the projects will be approved through single window system for better transparency,” he said.
