BENGALURU: Fed up with inaction from local authorities on their pleas to fix potholes dotting their roads, residents of several apartment complexes and villas at Chambenahalli village near Sarjapur have appealed to their MP, Dr CN Manjunath, for urgent development of basic infrastructure in the southeast Bengaluru locality.
In their letter to the Bangalore Rural MP, they highlighted the poor condition of roads, particularly the one connecting Chambenahalli and Nerriga, which worsens during rain, causing accidents. They sought reliable and regular power supply, citing daily fluctuations and inadequate grid capacity.
The residents also urged BWSSB to address water shortage and storm-water drainage issues, as borewells have dried up and without SWDs, the roads become a nightmare for commuters during rain because of flooding.
They demanded better police patrolling and traffic management to curb the rising incidence of robberies and road rage in the area. Furthermore, the residents highlighted the need for whitetopped roads instead of asphalted ones, given the heavy vehicular movement in the locality.
Vishnu Vardhan, a 24-year-old techie, said, “Chambenahalli-Nerriga road is always bad. I’ve never seen this road in good condition. Recently, I fell off my bike because of the poor condition of the road, leading to a minor fracture in my leg. Gladly nothing major happened.”
“We won’t get any autos here because who wants to commute on broken roads?” the resident asked. The 1km-long Chambenahalli-Nerriga road is part of highway-35, linking Sidlaghatta in Kolar and Anekal in Bengaluru Urban.
Among the several potholes on the stretch, one had grown menacingly wide and deep, so the locals erected a long stick in its middle and hoisted a white cloth on it to warn motorists.
On police patrolling, Rahul J, a 38-year-old techie, said, “For the past two years, we have seen multiple instances of thieves breaking into houses, and it once happened in our apartment. So far, nothing dangerous has happened, but to keep our families and ourselves safe, we have requested police patrol.”
According to him, the locality is seeing a lot of apartments coming up, and most residents travel to Whitefield and Varthur daily for work. “So, it’s high time for the officials to give us proper basic amenities like roads because in the future, once the population increases, this road will not be enough,” he said.
Chambenahalli comes under Yamare GP limits. Anil Chowdary, president of Saiven Silver Oaks Apartment Welfare Association, said, “The panchayat earlier said the road did not come under it but was under the central govt, but they did not have any documents for that. Now they have concluded it comes under state govt, but keep harping on about lacking funds to fix it.”
He added, “So we have reached out to MP Manjunath asking for funds, to which he has responded positively. He informed us he’d be giving some funds and would have a word with the state govt authorities for more to fix the road completely. We hope we at least get proper facilities this time.”
