Official apathy pushes Balagere residents to take up road cleaning drive again

Sridhar Mudooru, a senior IT employee who stays near Gunjur and works at an MNC on Outer Ring Road (ORR), was in for a rude shock on his way back from work on January 12.  

Mr. Mudooru, who commutes on the Panathur Road-CDP Road, was thrown off balance after his scooter fell into a pothole, one of the many that plague the stretch. He was left with multiple fractures on his right arm. 

“Doctors say that I may not be able to work for another two months at least, and it would take a minimum of six months for my hand to return to its normal state,” he says. 

Two-wheeler accidents have become common along the Balagere-Varthur-Gunjur corridor, owing to the poor condition of roads that feature multiple potholes and plumes of dust caused by mud and silt. Tired of the official apathy, residents of the locality will hold a cleaning drive in the area to highlight the plight of the roads, under the banner TejaVeera Yodha, on January 17.

A persistent problem

The key demands of the drive include a dedicated annual road maintenance plan for the key arterial roads across Balegere, Gunjur, Varthur, Panathur, and Sarjapur and immediate deployment of mechanised sweeping machines or adequately equipped manual teams with tractors for regular removal of roadside silt and dust.

Other demands include asphalting of roads from Balagere T-junction to Varthur police station, Bhoganahalli Road up to Gear International School and inner-lane roads in Panathur, and urgent road resurfacing of SH-35 (Varthur Road). 

The citizens also demand public disclosure of road maintenance budgets, expenditure details and completed work, on a periodic basis and accessible to all citizens.  

“The condition of the roads in this area has been abysmally poor for years now. Even when the the Deputy Chief Minister promised to fill up all the potholes in the city, this stretch was neglected,” says Mr. Mudooru. 

If earlier lack of fund allocation was the reason cited by officials, lately it has morphed into allocated funds being insufficient. According to officials, the allocated sum is insufficient to repair the whole of the approximately 55-km stretch.

Accidents common

“The Deputy Chief Minister had announced ₹8 crore for Balagere Road alone. But asphalting has been done only partly. On Saturday, we will be gathering where the situation is still bad,” said Swetha Rangaswamy, a Balagere resident, convenor at TejaVeera Yodha and a core member of the Individual Taxpayers’ Forum.

According to Ms. Rangaswamy, at least 10 to 15 accidents happen on the stretch every day, many of them involving gig workers who ride low-speed electric bikes.

“Many stretches don’t even have functioning streetlights,” said a delivery person from the locality.

A growing dustbowl

Yet another issue is the storm of dust in the area caused by heaps of mud and silt on the roads and the sides, causing increasing instances of respiratory issues for the residents. 

“Several tipper lorries move on the road, carrying silt and mud. The spillover from them has deteriorated the condition of the roads. In July we did a cleaning drive, which the Deputy Chief Minister had posted about on his X handle. Following this, officials ensured that cleaning was done for one week. Then it all stopped again. A sum of ₹613.25 crore was cleared by the Cabinet recently for sweeping machines. Where is the impact?” Ms. Rangaswamy questions.