Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath has announced that the BBMP’s ‘Fix My Street’ mobile app will be open for the public from January 1, 2023, where the public can provide information about potholes. While the Bengaluru Fix My Street app was originally launched in 2017, it was closed in 2019 for public use after complaints of technical glitches.
Addressing Bengaluru’s perennial pothole menace, Girinath said that December 31 has been set as the new deadline for fixing all the potholes in the city. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, December 20, Girinath said that BBMP engineers are responsible for the upkeep of roads, and warned of action against those found to be negligent.
The Chief Commissioner said that fixing potholes is an ongoing process, however, the BBMP will get a declaration from engineers that potholes on major roads will be fixed by December 31. He also emphasised that agencies, which take up digging work on roads to lay cables, etc. are responsible for closing them up too. “The agencies that cut up the road must restore them too. Sometimes they don’t do this, they cut up roads and leave them in this condition. No works are taken up without the permission of ward engineers, and so they will be held responsible for the road condition,” he said.
The Karnataka High Court, in the past, has come down heavily on the BBMP and given deadlines to the civic body to fix them, however, the problem persists. Several people have lost their lives while trying to avoid potholes, but no BBMP officials have been held accountable.