Share your pothole woes, help hold BBMP accountable

A PIL is ongoing in the High Court, that seeks to hold BBMP accountable for potholes. Send us details of potholes you know of, to help support this case
A couple of months ago, a mother and child met with a serious accident on the Varthur-Gunjur road. Passersby rushed them to a nearby hospital after they suffered injuries. Earlier this month, the condition of a Whitefield road became so poor that a school had to come forward to fix the road. A teacher from the school had met with an accident on the pothole-ridden road; one can only imagine how unsafe the school children would have been. We know of many such instances where commuters got injured or even lost their lives due to the poor condition of roads in Bengaluru.

In 2015, Vijayan Menon and others filed a PIL in the High Court of Karnataka demanding accountability from BBMP. The PIL pointed out that BBMP is the “owner and custodian” of all roads in Bengaluru as per Article 12 of the Constitution.

The BBMP’s duty includes providing and maintaining roads, ensuring good condition of roads for easy movement of vehicles, and ensuring the safety of citizens who use these vehicles and roads, said the PIL. It also highlighted several instances of citizens dying in accidents caused by poor road quality.

Interim order in July

In July, the court issued an interim order in the PIL, directing BBMP to define the process of compensating victims of such accidents. The order did not mention decent roads as a fundamental right of citizens, but held ward committees responsible for supervision of roads in their respective wards. The committees are to submit reports on roads to the High Court, via the BBMP Commissioner.

The court order further directed BBMP to take immediate action based on these reports, to set up a grievance redressal mechanism for the public to complain on damaged roads etc.

Around the July hearing, BBMP had submitted in court that the total length of 470 major roads within its jurisdiction is 1344.8 kms. And that, 108 of these roads – having total length of around 401 km – were affected by potholes. Besides, in 119 roads of around 106 km length, entities like BWSSB, KPTCL, BESCOM, GAIL etc had been permitted to cut/dig up the roads for laying cables, pipelines etc. BBMP had claimed that 362 of the roads (measuring about 943 km) were pothole-free.

Reacting to the court case as well as citizens’ ire, BBMP set itself a goal of filling potholes by November 10th. In its survey from October 1st to 10th, the Palike identified 10,656 potholes across all eight zones in the city.

However, by its November 10th deadline, BBMP declared that it had filled 9914 potholes, and would soon fill the remaining 742. But citizens have questioned these numbers.

https://twitter.com/Dkhallirising/status/1193907354548326402?s=20

Now, a month past its own deadline, BBMP has not made any official announcement on the status of pothole-fixing. But data from BBMP website as of November 27th showed that 327 potholes still remained to be fixed. Meanwhile pothole accidents recur in the city.

BBMP yet to frame guidelines for compensating victims

BBMP had remained mum on the HC order to give compensation to pothole accident victims. But, in a hearing on November 12th, court threatened to hold the BBMP in contempt for not setting up a compensation mechanism.

Eventually, on November 27th, BBMP placed an advertisement in newspapers announcing that compensation would be given to victims on a case-by-case basis. But there are no guidelines currently on compensation – on the application process, point of contact or the criteria for deciding compensation amount. BBMP says it’s working on these.

But BBMP has also challenged the High Court’s interim order in the Supreme Court. Compensation process would be subject to the final orders of the Supreme Court, BBMP had said in its newspaper ad.

Share your pothole woes to support the PIL

Meanwhile, High Court is yet to give its final judgement on the PIL filed by Menon. Presenting the ground reality of Bengaluru roads and potholes in court would help the PIL proceedings.

Hence we are collating data on the condition of roads across the city. If there are roads in your ward that need to be fixed, or if you have been in a pothole accident, share the details with us:

  • Take a picture of the road/pothole
  • Share the location (Latitude, Longitude)
  • If you have already raised a complaint through the BBMP Sahaya App, share the complaint number
  • Use the #BengaluruPothole hashtag while sharing the details in your Facebook/Twitter/Instagram post, so that we can collate the posts

You can also share information in our ‘Comments’ section below.

See also:

Bengaluru’s pothole victims’ pain continues, no formal way yet to claim compensation

Comments:

  1. RAMAN KRISHNAN says:

    What about footpaths. These are poorly lit, have loose electrical cables lying at several places , missing or displaced drain covers which could be as dangerous bas potholes on the road

  2. Maria Andrews says:

    Ward 6 Dasarahalli main road, also stretch opp to bbmp office is unridable and been like this for more than a yr…after so many compaint, tweets, news paper articles nothing has changed

  3. Ganesh P says:

    Main road in Anugraha Layout (Kodichikkanahalli – Ward 188) is in bad shape with lots of potholes. Issue was raised in BBMP Sahaaya app in May 2019 – request# 10856451.

  4. Brahmanyan says:

    80 ft Road in Koramangala 4 Block is a living specimen of neglect in all respects. The cement blocks covering rain water drains are left unfinished for months. Huge mounds of garbage in street corners are not cleared by BBMP. Daily Collection of wet/dry garbage from houses are not done properly. The three wheel vans seem to be inadequate for the job, they skip a day or two every week due to repairs.
    I wish the Corporator take morning visits along with BBMP officials or supervisors for inspection and find the condition himself.
    I am glad as the reports in the media, the Chief Minister has taken special interest in garbage clearing in the City.

    • Ekta Sawant says:

      Sir, thank you for raising the issues in your ward. Would it be possible for you to share the complaint number raised through the BBMP Sahaya App? It will be helpful in the court PIL proceedings.

  5. M N GOWDA says:

     Sir,
    It is very dangerous for the pedestrians to cross Bridge connecting Ramamurthy Ngr Signal & Ramamurthy Ngr Main Road because the foot path has vanished to an extent that it is a long ditch. The place where footpath was there, is full of slush especially during the rainy days. Apart from heavy traffic, long haul trucks of SAIL nearby always move on the bridge making it precarious for the pedestrians to cross the bridge without even a narrow footpath either side.  Some officials should come and cross the bridge when traffic is there.

             We had repeatedly appealed to BBMP,but no response.
    Thanking you,

    Yrs truly,
    MNGowda,
    Retd. Dy. Secretary to GOI. (Resident, B’lore)
    Mob: 9740578578

  6. Maria Mammen says:

    Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore 560 001 Ward 111 has numerous pot holes after BWSSB dug the road. Neither BWSSB nor BBMP have repaired the road despite contacting the engineers of both agencies directly. Pictures have been sent to them as well as to our MLA, Mr. N A Haris.

  7. Krishna says:

    Too many roads dug out BDS layout, Dr.shivaram Karanth Nagar, RK Hegde Nagar when raised complaint it was moved to long term plan without any date. It’s been six months now. It was paid during election and within one year these were dug out. BBMP sahaya no. 10893950

  8. Krishna says:

    Other complaints on dug out roads in RK Hegde Nagar. Very good roads dug out in short term of laying new roads, why they even lay roads and dig wasting lot of money. BBMP number 10917822 and 10920738

  9. Abhishek Kumar says:

    The most dangerous scenario is waiting (or already has met) for anyone among us at Devarabisanahalli Bridge near Ecospace. Any speeding vehicle will be thrown into Sky, either side of the mentioned place.

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