Crumbling infrastructure shames Karnataka: New roads, bridges cave in, develop potholes, collapse

The peeling roads, gaping potholes and overall substandard work is giving the Congress enough ammunition to target the BJP government.

ByBellie Thomas

Published Oct 19, 2022 | 8:00 AMUpdatedOct 19, 2022 | 1:57 PM

Bengaluru pothole

Vanitha S, 28, was on her scooter in Bengaluru on Monday, 17 October, with her 50-year-old mother riding pillion, when they met with an accident. Eyewitnesses say Vanitha lost balance as she swerved to avoid a pothole, and the scooter toppled over.

While she escaped with minor scratches, her mother was not as lucky; she sustained grave injuries, and succumbed to them in the hospital a few hours later.

“There was a pothole in the vicinity of the accident,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Kuldeep Kumar Jain, who visited the spot soon after the accident.

“In their complaint to the police, the women said there were potholes in the road, and we will go by that,” he told South First.

The problem is, the police complaint would probably help the victims with their insurance claims, if any, but not solve the bigger problem: Shoddy maintenance of Bengaluru’s civic infrastructure.

As traffic police personnel on duty near the accident site on Vatal Nagaraj Road said, repairs on that stretch were just patchwork. “The patchworks got washed away in the recent rains, and the potholes reappeared.”

Shoddy road constructions

And that seems to sum up the problem with the construction and maintenance of roads — not only in the Karnataka capital but elsewhere in the state as well: So shoddy are they that mere rains can wash away roadworks.

The state’s BJP government has been accused of laying substandard roads in haste in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, and Mysuru just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to these districts.

In fact, in an allusion to bribe amounts that it allegedly demands in exchange for handing out lucrative road construction or repairing contracts, the state government has been dubbed “a 40-percent commission government” by the Congress.

One can’t really fault the Congress; the list of shoddy road works is indeed lengthening.

  • In September, Bengaluru’s Shivananda flyover had to be closed down after being thrown open to the public the month before. There were complaints about design flaws. Civic authorities admitted that the road surface was uneven, and roped in researchers from the Indian Institute of Science to assess the endurance level and design flaws. The flyover was partially opened to traffic on 15 August.
  • In Shivamogga, a five-kilometre road stretch in Ripponpet in Hosanagara, which was laid four months ago at a cost of ₹4.4 crore, developed craterlike potholes this month because of the monsoon rains. Local villagers now want a new road; they are fed up with patchwork repairs.
  • A similar complaint was made by villagers in Shivamogga in June. Here too, the Congress accused the ruling party of corruption in governance.
  • Also in June, a newly-built bridge in the Malnad region of the Chikkamagaluru district caved in within a week of its inauguration.
  • In Bengaluru, where Modi addressed a huge gathering, Kommaghatta Road had to repaired weeks after it was relaid.
  • A newly-laid stretch on Jnanabharathi Road, on which Modi’s convoy passed, caved in a week after the prime-ministerial visit.
  • In Mangaluru, a road that was laid for Modi’s convoy developed craterlike potholes, and had to be
    repaired soon after his visit, as the loose asphalting had come out.

Related: Good Samaritan of Bengaluru who fills potholes to prevent mishaps

Latest cases: Belagavi and Kundalahalli

Two incidents occurred this month that should leave the administration red-faced: A road over bridge (ROB) project in the Belagavi district had to be closed for repair soon after it was inaugurated, while the Kunalahalli gate underpass in Bengaluru caved in just four months after inauguration.

The Belagavi ROB

The Belagavi ROB, located at a critical point in the local road network, had to be shut down for repair work within 48 hours of being inaugurated by Belagavi MP Mangal Suresh Angadi on 12 October.

Locals say its asphalt and bitumen “had come out like flakes”, creating potholes. As videos and photographs of the closed ROB went viral, netizens began trolling the government.

One tweet read: “Govt/contractors should be rewarded as the bridge did sustain for 48 hours at least. [sic]”

Another said: “British bridges 100 years, our bridges 48 hours…wow! [sic]”

When one netizen blamed “the 40-percent commission government”, another said it could have kept 60 percent of the bridge open.

Coming to the government’s rescue was the South Western Railways, its partner in executing the ₹27.28-crore project, which described the ROB as “structurally stable for vehicular movement”. It also took pains to explain that the closure was for re-asphalting only one short stretch where the surface bitumen had been damaged due to rain.

However, Angadi’s personal assistant denied any closure. “Even now it is open for traffic movement,” he told South First.

Kunalahalli gate underpass

Inaugurated in June by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the newly-laid road above the underpass caved in on 9 October.

This started a blame game between the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and Bengaluru’s civic body BBMP, over allegations that leaking water pipelines beneath the road had caused the cave-in.

Incidentally, the ₹19.5-crore project had missed several deadlines.