Ashwini M Sripad By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday had orally asked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to ensure zero potholes on the city roads. But overnight, the BBMP is actually staring at almost double the number of potholes on city roads as compared to the figure it had submitted before the court.

On Wednesday, the BBMP authorities informed the High Court that there were only 1,655 potholes. But when they submitted an affidavit on Thursday, the number surged to 3,071 potholes, of which authorities claim to have filled 899 on Wednesday night to meet the court’s challenge to bring the number down to zero. They identified 1,416 fresh potholes within hours of the high court taking them to task, with Dasarahalli zone alone showing up 502 new potholes, while West and East zones identified 10 potholes each.

The BBMP, however, got some relief on Thursday after the high court allowed its request to give three more days (till Monday) to complete filling all potholes across the city. But with the weatherman predicting more rains, they will have their work cut out.

Opposition Party Leader in BBMP Council Padmanabha Reddy said, “It is ridiculous to say BBMP, which is spread over more than 800 sqkm, has just 3,000 potholes. The potholes in the city are countless! Who counted them?”

A senior BBMP officer, on condition of anonymity, told The New Indian Express that they did not have proper data on potholes in the city. “There is no count of potholes as many of them re-appear even after filling them. This apart, hundreds of potholes come up in each zone every day, it is a never-ending woe. The white topping and TenderSURE roads do not have potholes, but a vast majority of asphalted roads have potholes. Engineers do not keep count of it,’’ the official said.

On Thursday, many potholes were seen on Bannerghatta Road, Adugodi, Shanthinagar, Koramanagala, Wilson Garden, Ulsoor, Chandra Layout, Vijaynagar, Rajajinagar, Okalipura, Malleswaram, Sheshadripura, Mysuru Road, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Peenya, Dasarahalli, Bommanahalli, JP Nagar, HBR Layout and other places.

Opposition Party Leader in BBMP Council Padmanabha Reddy said, “It is ridiculous to say BBMP, which is spread over more than 800 sqkm, has just 3,000 potholes. The potholes in the city are countless! Have they done any survey? This is nothing but misleading the high court. We demand an external third party to check the number of potholes, only then the truth will come out. The officials have given numbers according to their whims and fancies. As the Congress-JDS coalition failed to do their duty, high court has to intervene — advertisement hoardings to potholes, it might take garbage disposal in the coming days. It is sad that the court has to intervene and wake the BBMP up.”

To make matters worse, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre is predicting moderate to heavy rainfall in some parts of Karnataka including Bengaluru. BBMP engineers who are struggling to fill potholes will have a major challenge, besides the one set by the high court, although the deadline has been relaxed till Monday.