Faced with public anger and media scrutiny over the poor condition of roads in Bengaluru, the BBMP has decided to make the list of faulty contractors public.
Along with the names and phone numbers of the contractors, the BBMP has also shared the contact details of its engineers. This will allow residents to report road complaints directly to the contractor.
This development was first reported by The Times Of India’s Niharika Alva.
The list shows that south zone has the most number of roads (124) which are still under the responsibility of the contractor followed by Bommanahalli which has 61. The east zone and west zone have 38 and 60 such roads respectively, The other roads are: Dasarahalli-17, Yelahanka-36, Rajarajeshwari Nagar-48 and Mahadevpura-22.
The full list can be accessed here.
Speaking with TOI, BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad on Tuesday said that 400km of city’s road were still under the responsibility of the contractors. In addition to naming these contractors, the BBMP said that it would also take legal action against errant contractors and blacklist them from future tendering process.
“We are working round the clock to ensure all the potholes are filled within the deadline set by the chief minister. About 400km of roads is under contract, so the responsibility of fixing potholes lies with contractors. If contractors don't honour the agreement, then we will file criminal cases against them and blacklist them," Prasad told TOI.
The south zone comprises 44 municipality wards and includes areas of Basavangudi, Koramangala, BTM Layout, Chikkalasandra, Giri Nagar, Hampinagar, Jaya Nagar, JP Nagar, Karisandra, Katriguppe, Kumaraswamy Layout and Padmanabhangar among others.
According to BBMP rules, contractors are liable to maintain roads and repair potholes for three years after building the road.
The BBMP has faced the wrath of angry citizens as a result of potholes on the city roads which have claimed at least five lives in the past few days.
Meanwhile, the BBMP has claimed that 12,592 out of 24,661 potholes have already been fixed.