Thursday, March 16, 2006

Bangalore's 80-ft Road

I hold no brief for Bangalore's mayor Mumtaz Begum. But the point that she made day before yesterday -- that 80-ft road in Indiranagar is in good shape and didn't merit immediate tarring -- is absolutely valid. I use this and adjoining roads daily.

The road may be old and may need strengthening, as Bangalore Commissioner Jothiramalingam countered. But the fact is right beside the 80-ft road, the Old Madras Road is so bad in many areas: one of the worst points being in front of the Bypanahalli Police Station.

Actually, the 200 metre stretch up to the deviation to NGEF has been in a pathetic state for almost a year now. No one seems to be bothered, even after the media highlighting it.

In Bangalore, nothing gets noticed without an IT tag. Even on that count this stretch merits attention. Because this is the road that leads to famed IT Park in Whitefield.

The case here is not against tarring 80-ft road. In fact, the mayor while highlighting the misplaced priority should not have asked for stoppage of work. And, during yesterday's inspection of the locality, chief minister Kumaraswamy rightly shot down mayor's suggestion to stop the tarring work, and said the work should go on.

Right priority is the key. It's frustrating to see good roads being tarred first, and bad roads ignored. It's just common sense that bad roads are taken up first. And, you don't need world class engineers to identify a bad road in Bangalore. MG Road and Brigade Road can definitely wait for a few months.


5 comments:

  1. I so agree. Somebody ought to teach them lessons on prioritising - Or may be there are hidden factors at work, who knows?

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  2. I agree with Pradeep. The Old Madras Road needs urgent attention. It's definitely a case of misplaced priorities. The 200 metre stretch near Byapanahalli is downright pathetic. I have been using this route for last 2 months.
    It's almost like a "roller-coaster" ride on that 200m stretch.
    I hope the authorities will wake up and do something about it.

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  3. me too. I think, bangalore needs to repair the non-IT sections of the city ... me living in kasturi nagar and must tell you some of the lesser parts of the cities have such pathetic roads, that they qualify for the "Pradhan manthri Gram sadak yojna"...

    vasu

    ReplyDelete
  4. ** Usha, Anony, Vasu:
    Well, I was not wide off the mark with my remarks! Thanks for the comments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pradeep,
    Can you comment on the current state of NGEF parallel road.
    thanks for your blogs.

    ReplyDelete

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