Image Courtesy: The News Minute In the last few weeks, BBMP has been annoyed to no end by certain developments on a road that should ideally have required little maintenance for the next few years. St. Marks Road, one of the roads re-developed under the TenderSURE project, has been plagued by a rather irritating problem – two-wheelers who try to squeeze past the bollards on the footpath in a bid to get ahead of the bumper-to-bumper traffic during peak hours. (Bollards are short pillar-like structures used to prevent impatient two-wheeler riders from riding on the footpath.) To top it off, this keeps happening just ahead of the inauguration – St. Marks Road and Vittal Mallya Hospital Road are scheduled to be officially opened on June 26. School children jump over the partially broken bollards BBMP officials are claiming that bollards erected on footpaths of St. Mark’s road have gone missing and were probably stolen by miscreants. Made of granite, these bollards fetch a good sum in the market, they say. People who work in the area, however, dismissed the “theft” theory. Basavaraj Pawar, manager at Wine Supply Depot on St. Mark’s road, said that since bikes often speed across the footpaths during traffic jams, they end up breaking or damaging the bollards. According to him, a strong blow would knock them off since they were erected too close to the surface and did not have any other strong support. Hemanth Kumar too has seen this happen. A security guard at the Bowring Institute, he says that the footpath is mostly used by cyclists, but motorcyclists ride on the footpath during the rains. The broken bollards on St. Mark's Road Cubbon Park Traffic Inspector Prathap Reddy said that he too had noticed the phenomenon. “I’ve seen them fallen on the ground, but I don’t know anything about it being stolen. The BBMP knows better and they should be asked about it,” he said. In order to crack the mystery, BBMP officials and the traffic police have decided to install CCTV cameras along the footpaths to ensure there is no further damage. Mariyappa, manager at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) petrol pump on St. Marks Road who has closely watched the construction of the road says that the bollards near the petrol bunk are a nuisance. According to him, since the bollards are erected right at the entrance and exit of the petrol pump, it constricts the movement of large vehicles which end up knocking them off. “I repeatedly told BBMP officials to place them at least a few feet away from the entrance, but it fell on deaf ears. They said they could not alter the plan as the decision was taken by the designers of the TenderSURE project,” he says. The state government has spent more than Rs 100 crore on the project, yet maintenance has had to begin even before it is officially thrown open to the public. One would have thought, that people would show some respect for public infrastructure meant for them. Image courtesy: The News Minute