BENGALURU: In order to refute the claim made by BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad that Bengaluru had just 27 potholes on its main roads, a ‘pothole yatra’ held by the Nav Bharat Democratic Party has revealed that there are as many as 7,000 dangerous potholes.
The survey was conducted over 50 km of Bengaluru’s main roads and has allegedly found 420 craters in the area covered. According to the survey, the areas in Bengaluru with the most potholes are Wilson Garden, Marathahalli and Yelahanka. The city’s potholes have resulted in the loss of nine lives with hundreds of others suffering injuries. Nav Bharat party President Anil Shetty has called for the implementation of ‘road history’ to make the process transparent.
“The BBMP has cheated the citizens of Bengaluru by publishing false statistics and passing the buck to bureaucrats. We demand that the process becomes transparent and every citizen has access to data related to when the road was laid, who laid it, how many potholes surfaced and when they were filled,” he said.
The Yatra was held over eight days in Bengaluru and members are said to have traveled around 210 km before reaching the conclusion on Tuesday, covering just about every area in the city.
The aim was to spread awareness on pothole problem. “There are 1,400 km of main roads in Bengaluru. Taking the average of identified potholes, the count becomes one pothole per km. So totally, there are 7000 potholes left to be filled,” said Rowland Soans, a party member.
“It is quite evident that the BBMP Commissioner has been lying to us. Through this endeavor, we wanted to expose his lies and let Bengalureans realise the extent of the problem,” he added.
