The Times of India 12.08.2010
Of wide roads and drain water
BANGALORE: What has road widening to do with filthy water in your taps? Residents of Anantharamaiah Layout on Mysore Road were shocked to find sanitary waste flowing in with water.
Reason: Earth movers had damaged sanitary pipelines when road-widening was taken up on Mysore Road, 10 days ago. This led to liquid waste mixing with drinking water, which was pumped to more than 75 houses on 1st cross of the layout.
What started off as a tree-cutting exercise to enable road-widening, resulted in this mess. One big tree had roots growing below the pipelines, which cracked when earth movers ploughed into the soil to remove the roots. "Drinking water pipes and sanitary pipelines are laid next to each other, due to which dirty water got mixed with clean water. Our corporator B V Ganesh came to our rescue," C P Shivanna, a resident said.
"Our tanks were filled with filthy, stinking water. We realized it only when we saw the coloured, smelly water flowing from our taps. This continued for two days and we were supplied tanker water by BWSSB. But we had to face a lot of inconvenience as sumps had to be cleaned completely. We called the BBMP and BWSSB control rooms, but it was futile. It is only for the past three days that we are getting good water as the pipes were changed," said Padma Srinivas, a resident.
BSNL HIT TOO
BSNL lines were also affected by the earth movers. "One tower, which had over 500 connections, was hit. This is due to a lack of coordination between the civic agencies. BSNL connections are frequently dead due to the road-widening project, it affects internet connectivity, which is a problem for students and those working from home," said Gangamma Nanjundappa.
However, BBMP officials dismiss these as minor problems. It is solved now, was the cryptic reply from the area AEE.
TREE CUTTING NOT MY JOB!
The mess is caused when piece-meal contracts are awarded. When The Times of India visited the area to check out the tree-cutting process, the contractor in charge of road-widening on that stretch had this to say: "I am only in charge of road-widening and not shifting the electric poles and cutting the trees. I have no clue about the electric poles that will be affected. Bescom officials will remove them as and when we come across them." On Wednesday, when trees were being axed near a burial ground on Mysore Road, no safety measures were followed. Branches fell on to the road, even as traffic flowed. No attempt was made to halt commuters, neither did BBMP officials inform the traffic police.
CORPORATOR TALK
The frequent transfer of officials in one of the main reasons for the chaos. Even on this road, the engineer in charge was suspended from his post, and his replacement is updating himself on the ongoing work. Lack of coordination between civic agencies was one reason for the mess. Officials must anticipate the problems that are likely to occur. It must not be repeated.
B V Ganesh | corporator, chamarajpet ward
BOX:
OFFICIALS FACE PUBLIC FURY
With the mayor and ministers taking a populist stand on road-widening, and giving statements on temporarily shelving the project, BBMP officials have been facing public fury. "We are yet to acquire properties on Mysore Road where road-widening work was started recently. Work has begun, but with the statements of the mayor and ministers, people are not supporting us on land acquisition. When we tell them the Mysore Road project has not been shelved, they don't believe us, and it's difficult to work," said a BBMP official on the spot.
Valmiki Nagar Park of BBMP and the Christian burial ground will come under the axe, along with hundreds of private properties.
COORDINATION COMMITTEE ONLY ON PAPER!
A Ravindra, adviser to the chief minister on urban affairs, who was instrumental in setting up a coordination committee to ensure that the various civic agencies are in sync with each other, said: "In this case, the officials concerned must be made accountable. While taking up projects like road-widening, officers of the civic agencies must hold meetings much before work starts. By and large, the coordination committee meetings are taking place but they might not be 100% effective."
