Bangalore: After
repeatedly failing to keep its promise to make city roads pothole-free,
the BBMP will now use a PYTHON 5000 Pothole Patcher machine, which can
repair 30 kilometres of road in eight hours. Work on filling the
potholes will begin on Thursday.

The BBMP, which is under
severe public criticism for poor maintenance of roads, has selected
major roads across all the six zones for repair work.

Some 1,940
kilometres of road, which is roughly 75 per cent of the total road
network in the city, will be made pothole free through this machine.

“As
per the tender agreement, the company is also given the responsibility
of road maintenance for the next three years,” said an officer.

At a time five tonnes of bitumen can be loaded in the machine. It can fill up a pothole within three to five minutes.

“We expect the machine can solve the pothole problem at least by the end of this year,” the officer added.

According
to BBMP commissioner M. Lakshminarayana, for every kilometre of road,
the BBMP will spend Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 depending on the number of
potholes.

Bangalore based American Road Technology has brought this Rs 3 crore machine to the city as part of the tender agreement with the BBMP.

According
to sources, this is the second time the BBMP has tried to get these
pothole-filling machines in the hope of finding an instant solution to
the problem.

“When D. Venkatesh Murthy was the mayor, it was
planned to purchase eight pothole filling machines. But the plan didn’t
materialise. We wish this time we achieve success,” said an officer from
the road maintenance wing.