Cops have given list of 10,000 potholes in Bengaluru: Dy CM Shivakumar

BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said in the Assembly on Friday that the police have given the government a list of 10,000 potholes in Bengaluru, while the public and MLAs too have added their own numbers to the list. Replying to questions raised by Opposition members on Bengalurus development, Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru development minister, said they have filled 5,377 potholes, while the remaining are yet to be repaired. This is a temporary solution. As a permanent way out, we want to take up white topping and black topping of roads that will be have a life of 30 years. We are convening a meeting of Bengaluru MLAs on Monday to discuss issues related to the city, he added. Shivakumar said 154 km of roads will be white topped at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore. In the first phase, 633 km of arterial roads will be taken up for white-topping, and the detailed project report is ready. Rs 9,200 crore will be spent on white topping of roads across Bengaluru. Major arterial and sub-arterial roads, running for 490 km, will be relaid at a cost of Rs 690 crore, he added. To prevent flooding in the city, a World Bank-assisted project to concretise 173 km of storm water drains will be taken up. Bengaluru has 850 km of storm water drains, of which 480 km has been concretised, while the work covering 195 km is going on. Once the remaining 173 km is cemented, the entire SWD work in Bengaluru would be completed. We are spending Rs 1,700 crore on interlinking of lakes. This, too, wil help control urban flooding. On elections to the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), he said that with the GBA Act passed, the government will now take up ward delimitation. For this, they will take BJP members too into confidence. The draft notification on GBA was issued on July 19. This will not violate the 74th amendment (which gives constitutional status to urban local bodies). The government will not interfere with the functioning of corporations to be set up under GBA, he said. The government is geared up for the GBA polls. We have given permission to the State Election Commission on revising the electoral rolls. They will conduct the polls, he said. The state government will fund some of the big projects like the tunnel road, white topping, elevated corridors, etc, he added.