The Ramagondanahalli-Borewell Road in Whitefield stretches more than two kilometres connecting Varthur Road to Borewell Road. This area falls under Ward  84, Hagduru under Mahadevapura constituency.

This has about a thousand residential dwellings mostly in the form of flats and villas. With quite a few of them being relatively new apartments, there are at least about 600 families who are staying here at present and this number is expected cross 1,000 in the next few months. This road also is home to a beautiful lake named Sheelavanthana kere.

Giant potholes and non-functional street lights on the Ramagondanahalli-Borewell Road in Whitefield. Pic

But sadly, there is complete lack of any civic infrastructure here for the past many years. There is no trace of a motorable road in the entire stretch – all one can see is craters of enormous sizes, and complete slush and water on rainy days.

To add to this, there are no street lights in about three entire stretches of 400 to 500 metres each. The few street lights that are in place are off most of the days, plunging the entire road to utter darkness after sunset. During rainy evenings, the road is pitch-dark, filled with dangerous and deadly craters full of water and slush, making it impossible to walk or ride a two wheeler. As a result, vehicles are forced to ply on high-beam, rendering it impossible to negotiate this stretch to get home.

To top it all, there are a couple of huge vacant plots that have hundreds of sheds to house the construction labourers of the buildings coming up in the adjoining areas. With no sanitation or drainage facility in these settlements, they bathe and wash in the open and worse, use the entire lake bank and the road near the lake for defecating. Due to open defecating on an entire bank side of the lake, residents are unable to use it for walking or any other purpose.

We have tried complaining numerous times through various channels like the BBMP Sahayaa website, ichangemy city etc, but there has been absolutely no action taken for any complaint in the last two years. Even though each of these complaints are assigned an official by BBMP, we get no response from them.

So with a pathetic road, absolute darkness after sunset and labourers who walk in groups smoking, spitting and with item numbers blaring from their phones, it has become impossible for anyone, especially ladies and senior citizens, to venture out this road alone. Women, who return from work using public transport, find it difficult to walk to reach reach their homes; a family member typically has to go to the main road each time to accompany them home. Autos refuse to ply, and even when they agree, women are apprehensive to take them since there are no street lights.

God forbid if miscreants harass someone, there is no way the others can even get to know or go to their rescue. And in case of medical emergency, the less said, the better.

In all, this is a disaster waiting to happen! If the authorities wake up only after a rape or an accidental death, it would be useless.

For many of the complaints raised by various residents on the ichangemycity portal and acknowledged by BBMP, the status is either ‘on-the-job’ or closed without confirmation. There are complaints as old as, or more than two years even. There has never been a proper response to any of the calls made to the officials assigned to each of these tickets. The calls go unattended or are given standard responses like ‘work-in-progress’.

Here are some of the complaints raised on the ichangemycity portal.

• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/mud-road-becoming-horrible-with-slight-rain
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/unusable-road
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/ramagondanahalli-borewell-road-needs-repair-0
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/ramagondanahalli-bothwell-road-need-renovatore
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/ramagondanahalli-borewell-road-needs-repair
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/very-bad-roads-1
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/users/jyoti-purohit
• http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalore/complaints/ramagondanahalli-borewell-road-not-good-condition-all-mud-all-over

And some of them raised on BBMP’s Sahaaya online portal – bbmp.sahaaya.in.

• 10520783 – Road and street lights
• 10520258 – Street light
• 10520260 – Road
• 10520059 – Light
• 10520039 – Road
• 10507999 – Light
• 10519882 – Light

We request the authorities to take up this issue and help the many families that here lead a safe life. All we are asking for is a few street lights and a motorable road. Installing about ten street lights in the areas where they are not present, and keeping the rest functional, should not cost a fortune.  

This little act will enable hundreds of people to get home safely on their own, every evening after work. This small act could possible even prevent a potential act of crime that might garner national headlines.

Related Articles

Whitefield citizens to take to streets on Nov 30th
Whitefield Shining – breaking global records!
An open letter to corporate heads by a humble Whitefield citizen