After white-topping on Chinmaya Mission Hospital (CMH) road, residents had no choice but to open the gates of their houses inwards only.
Residents of Indiranagar are unable to open their gates outwards after white-topping on Chinmaya Mission Hospital (CMH) road since the sidewalk is at a higher level.
White-topping on CMH road has been ongoing for at least two-three months now. The concrete slabs which are being placed over the drains are at a higher level, and prevent residents from opening their gates.
A lot of distress has been caused by the construction of white-topped roads among pedestrians, senior citizens, and especially residents as a result. Moreover, the contractors asked residents to raise their gate pillars at their own expense.
A resident of the area, Romani said, “The level of the road has increased since the white-topping. I can no longer open my gates outward due to huge slabs covering drains and now need to build new gate pillars because the contractors want us to raise them at our own expense and there are now chances of rainwater flowing into our houses.”
As per the BBMP website this project was planned for the ‘White-topping on selected roads in Bengaluru city under Special Infrastructure Projects Grants. The white topping is the suitable proposal without disturbing the overall pavement structure.’
White-topping work in progress at Chinmaya Mission Hospital (CMH) road, Indiranagar.
Dr Srinivas Chakragiri, Director of Street Matrix, a consultancy firm, said, “The road, as you consider, is not just the road, the road system consists of different kinds of elements such as pavement on which the vehicles move, along with the stormwater drains in which the rainwater has to flow through the underground drainage system. The ground level of the house should be considered before building establishments nowadays.”
“To avoid rainwater coming in the plinth level of the building should be approximately two to three feet up to one meter high, floor-finished level of every building considering the ground level under the drainage system should be certainly higher than the road level,” he added.
Currently, Indiranagar is a large commercial area; houses were built according to the level of the road back then. In the area, the newly constructed buildings can easily adjust to the new levels of the roads. This causes a great deal of difficulty for older buildings in the area.
The current scenario at CMH road.
Senior citizens have also raised concerns about walking in the area. P C Reddy, a 76-year-old man, who now occasionally visits CMH road said, “I used to come here almost every other day for shopping or bank-related work, but in the last few months the condition of the road has deteriorated, which makes it difficult for me to walk these kinds of roads. Now I only visit this area when necessary.”
Several residents complained that they were not able to take their four-wheelers out of their houses or park in front of their respective houses. Some were forced to leave their vehicles outside, which raised some concerns about vehicles getting damaged or stolen.
“Taking out four-wheelers from our garage was impossible because the whole footpath had been dug up,” said another resident, T V Sankaran. “Our two-wheelers had to be parked across the street, as our gate pillars were damaged for two months, we had to reconstruct the gate pillars ourselves,” he added.
As there is still work to be completed on CMH Road, residents are waiting for the ramps to be laid so that they can take their vehicles outside.
Assistant Chief Executive Officer of BBMP (east) said, “Most of the houses in this area are around 30-40 years old and were built in accordance with the guidelines. Rainwater will enter the compounds of these houses even if we lower the levels of the footpaths.”
“Concrete ramps will be constructed along the slabs once work is complete,” he concluded.
