EXPERTS SPEAK THEIR MIND

The sun shone on Bengaluru after several days on Wednesday, bringing some degree of warmth. But the few dry hours the city experienced in some parts has also shown a glimpse of a serious concern round the corner: That when clouds over the city do clear and the sun shines bright once again, Bengaluru would be a one big, dusty city with dangerous pothole-ridden roads!The road you see this evening would not be similar tomorrow, with newer potholes being formed due to loose gravel coming off already filled up potholes in the vicinity. With the authorities dumping mud and %gravel to cover potholes, this knee-jerk action is also bound to increase pollution levels as well as road accidents across the city. The potholes too would be back with their fillings gone.On Tuesday, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engineers were forced to use quarry dust material to cover huge potholes on the city’s major arterial and sub-arterial roads. This was partly in response to the traffic police top brass recently threatening to take action against the jurisdictional civic engineers in case of accidents caused by the potholes in their respective jurisdictions.The filling up was carried out on the directions of BBMP commissioner’ G Kumar Naik and the engineers claimed that almost all major potholes on the city roads had been covered with quarry dust material provide temporary relief to the city motorists.However, the city’s high density vehicular traffic keeps whipping up the pothole fillings from the road surfaces all through the day, leaving it loose. With the rains almost done with Bengaluru the dry, cold weather is all set to worsen the situation, not only making the roads dangerous for the motorists – especially the two-wheeler riders – but also increasing the dust pollution levels across the city.Naik has promised that the quarry dust would be removed immediately after the rains and replaced with bituminous mix to provide long-term relief for the motorists.But experts feel it won’t be possible for the BBMP engineers or the contract labour to clean up the quarry dust that has come loose from the potholes across the city. The Herculean effort would require over a week to be carried out – that much time to render two-wheeler riders vulnerable to treacherous pothole-ridden and cratered roads.According to transport department officials the city with about 57 lakh vehicles contributes most to the Respirable Suspen-ded Particulate Matter (RSPM) in the air. As per the source apportionment study report of Bengaluru City conducted by The Energy Research Institute (TERI), contribution from transport sector is 42 per cent, road dust accounting for 20 percent, and domestic sector with 3 per cent. These apart, diesel generators contribute 7 per cent and another 14 per cent from industries and construction sector each.The BBMP should have used 6mm micron wet mix which could have given temporary relief to the motorists. This technology is used during formation of new roads before asphalting. It is necessary to lay good quality roads and good drainage systems which will also increase the lifespan of the roads.”The increasing levels of dust in the air has a severe impact on children who are more sensitive to respiratory disorders. An increasing number of people are coming with conjunctivitis, pharyngitis and cases of flu. This also tends to spread virus from one person to another.“Filling potholes with quarry dust is a temporary relief provided by the BBMP. It should be acceptable as the traffic should move on. Instead, it continues to get stranded. BBMP will take some time to restore the roads but they should also ensure that the work is taken up immediately after the rains stop.”