Bengaluru Civic Body Gets 3 Days to Fill 2,172 Potholes; Court Asks 'Not Ashamed to Count Them?'

Bengaluru: Day after Karnataka High Court came down heavily on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), asking the civic body to fill all potholes in less than 24 hours, the BBMP on Thursday said that there were more potholes in the city than what they had identified a day before.

The BBMP, in its affidavit, said that there are 2,172 potholes that need to be filled. They have been given three days' time by the high court to work on them.

On September 18, BBMP said there were 1,655 potholes while on September 19, they said there were an additional 1,416 potholes of which 899 have been filled. The BBMP is expected to submit its status on the remaining 2,172 potholes on Monday when the court hears the case again. The remaining potholes are spread across BBMP's eight zones and Road Infrastructure Division.

The court's observations and BBMP's subsequent submissions came up during the hearing of a PIL filed in 2015.

"Our petition was essentially to deal with the situation of bad roads and potholes. Every time it rains it is hell in Bengaluru. The court has said we will look into filling the potholes first and then look into the other issues," said Anuradha SR, advocate for the petitioners.

The development comes at a time when the Supreme Court has taken note of the number of pothole deaths in the country. The apex court had on Tuesday taken note of close to 3,600 pothole deaths last year.

On Wednesday, the high court told BBMP to make the city pothole-free by next morning even if it meant working through the night. The court also warned the BBMP that it would take a call on the next step of action if the work is not done, asking if the officials weren't ashamed of counting the potholes instead of fixing them.