Bhatkal: Repaired pothole now ‘more dangerous’

Bhatkal 17 October 2018: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) Bhatkal Town Municipal Council (TMC) on Wednesday 'repaired' a dangerous pothole on the road near the fish market here on October 17, by covering the pothole with a custom made concrete brick. The locals however, expressed their dissent over the development and added that the local body has made the pothole 'more dangerous' for the bike riders and pedestrians. The concrete brick installed has failed to bridge the gap of the pothole and as much as approx 7-8 inches gap remains to be covered. A local shop-keeper Shabbir adds "They have covered the pothole in an incomplete manner and have made it more dangerous, now the pedestrians and bikers during night will assume that the pothole has been repaired and will walk/ride over the brick without knowing that the other part of the pothole is yet to be covered". "There were two potholes, one is so called 'repaired' while the other one very next to it is not looked at, at all. An inadequate rock has been fixed into it and that's all, it is very serious and very dangerous" Shabbir says while expressing concern over public during night hours. "The engineer did not even visit the site while the 'repair' work was being done, in fact no TMC official did, it is a serious matter and their attitude is careless" he further added. When Bhatkallys.com enquired TMC engineer Umesh expressed his helplessness on the issue and added "We ordered the brick and it is not fitting in, and there is no much space for another brick to be fixed, so we need to find an alternate solution". When asked when will the body come up with an 'Alternate solution' Umesh turns his head other way without any answer. On being questioned repeatedly the Engineer adds that he will resolve the issue in another 15 days citing dasara vacations and the approval he will need to get from the concerned authorities before going ahead with the work. On a serious issue like this, where an accident is waiting to happen, such lagging attitude of the administration in of course shocking yet we decided to give him the deadline of 15 more days to fulfill his promise, it will now be interesting to see how much time the local body takes to get the work done in the best of interest of the citizens. (Bhatkallys News Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez) [caption id="attachment_179229" align="alignnone" width="1200"] A photo of the pothole after being 'repaired' on Wednesday[/caption]