The New Indian Express 24.05.2010
Water, water everywhere
BANGALORE: Barely a week after the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board chairman PB Ramamurthy assured to minimise loss of water due to leakages in the city, thousands of litres of water spilled on the streets due to a cracked pipe on Cubbon Road. The BWSSB, recently dug up the road in the name of replacing pipes and left it in a pitiable condition.
People often hit Cubbon Road, one of the most peaceful and scenic roads in Bangalore, to avoid traffic jams on MG Road and Brigade Road and also to get to the northern part of the city. “We read about localities not receiving water for days but also witness such wastage of water," said Ashwin Suresh, a commuter.
Terming the wastage as ‘sinful’, he said that whoever was responsible for this should pay for the damage.
“I saw people tarring the roads a few days ago and was happy that finally they were doing us this favour of covering the roads that they dug up. But later we discovered that it had developed cracks and also caved in”, pitched in Guru. He said that for many days, bulldozers dug up the place and many large pipes were still left behind and this caused more inconvenience to pedestrians who could not walk on the footpath.
The BWSSB chairman had recently acknowledged water leakages in the BBMP Special Council Session and assured to contain them at the earliest.
Ramamurthy had said that the city lost nearly 300 mld (million litres a day) of water due to leakages and many projects by the water department and the government would be able to satiate Bangalore’s thirst after completing the second stage of the fourth phase of the Cauvery water project.
“It was a pleasure to drive here in the past. But the constant digging by the BWSSB for various replacement works has destroyed not only the looks but also the pleasure of driving on this stretch,” said Prassana.
“Though everyone knew that this was a parallel road to MG road, traffic was never a concern here,” he said, and added that the road was spotless as the army mostly maintained it.
“Road resurfacing is the work of the BBMP and it is possible that heavy vehicles must have gone over the relayed road before it was set properly,” said Prahalad Rao, PRO, BWSSB, adding that the concerned engineers would be contacted immediately. He also said that many times the police give them very little time to complete the job due to traffic and often the water board is rushed into finishing the job, and thus the work proves to be inefficient.
