When restrictions were eased as part of Unlock 3.0, Preetam Kumar, a consultant, was asked to physically report to work. However, the commute from his residence at Vijayanagar to his office on Residency Road is a nightmare as several roads continue to remain dug up as part of the Bengaluru Smart City Project work. The recent spate of rain has only made the situation worse.
“Getting in and out of the central business district (CBD) area, where most of the roadworks are under way, is a pain. During peak hours, it almost takes 45 minutes to get in and out of the CBD. I wish the government had finished with these projects during the lockdown and before the monsoon,” he said.
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who also holds the charge of Bengaluru Development, had asked officials to complete the work.
In January this year, at a review meeting after an inspection, he had set a deadline of May 31 to complete all the work on 32 roads in the CBD area. At a review meeting on June 10, he pulled up officials for missing the deadline and for delays in the implementation of the Smart City Project works. Expressing concern over “imminent unlocking and commencement of the monsoon”, he set a new deadline of June 30. However, work on only nine of the 32 roads have been completed to date.
Civic agencies are confident of completing the work on another 11 roads by July 15. “We need to club utility lines of power, water, and telecom at the street corners which are the only works pending on most of these 11 roads. This will be completed by the next weekend,” said B.S. Prahalad, Chief Engineer, Bengaluru Smart City Ltd.
However, agencies estimate that ongoing work on another eight roads, including Kamaraj Road, Miller’s Road, and Dickenson Road, can be completed only by July 30, and that on the remaining five roads, including St. John’s Church Road, and Avenue Road, only by August 30.
Traffic jams
B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner, Traffic, Bengaluru, said traffic snarls in the CBD had become common ever since the city was unlocked. “On our part, we are managing traffic and allowing roadworks to happen even during the day, in the hope that they get completed quickly,” he said.
Since the monsoon has also begun in earnest, the rain has only add to the woes on the streets.
Mr. Prahalad said though the lockdown period could have been used to complete pending work, that opportunity was lost owing to labour shortage issues during the period. “Many labourers had to be quarantined and that hit the morale of other workers as well. It created a fear psychosis and we found it extremely difficult to find labourers during the lockdown. Now, work is in full swing and will be completed at the earliest,” he said.
But with agencies promising to finish work for several months now, commuters remain sceptical.
