BENGALURU: The city's swanky and upscale Church Street stretch, which was remodelled with over five lakh hand-laid granite cobblestones as part of the Rs 17-crore project, has developed a huge pothole for the first time.
The 900-metre road was relaid in 2017-18. It had witnessed chipping of one or two blocks in the past, thanks to poor quality of work and lack of maintenance.
The initial neglect in fixing the chipping blocks has now resulted in the development of the pothole, urban experts said. According to them, seepage of water caused it, and only proper grouting can prevent the problem.
Nagesh Aras, an urban activist who is legally pursuing the pothole issue on Bengaluru roads, blamed it on poor planning. "Paving the surface using cobblestone was a bad idea for this street which is frequently used by vehicles. Dotted with banks, government establishments, and eateries, Church Street is flocked by thousands of visitors, and hundreds of vehicles ply on the stretch. Across Europe, cobblestones are used on stretches that are not used by motorists. But here, it was foolish to think that this road could be made vehicle-free," he said.
Frequent users of the road point out that at least two dozen stones have disappeared, turning it into a broken stretch from being a model road when inaugurated.
Slamming the civic bodies for replicating medieval-era design, without paying attention to maintenance, another urban expert said: "Poor maintenance and lack of proper grouting have paved the way for the running water to seep in. Overflowing drains or wastewater from eateries have also caused damage to the road. The pothole is now posing a threat to motorists."
