Mysore/Mysuru: In what seems to be a ‘Patchy  decision’, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), instead of taking road repair works by Asphalting, has resorted to ‘Patch work’ of damaged stretches of city roads, which can only be a temporary measure.

In the past, the MCC used to asphalt the roads that were damaged due to rains or other conditions. But now, the MCC has deviated from its action, by just asphalting select roads during Dasara. But the damaged roads have to wait until the  arrival of Dasara festival for getting a new look.

The MCC used to regularly asphalt the roads around Mysore Palace in the heart of the city as it was an important tourist destination. But now, the MCC is just doing patch work on prominent roads such as Sayyaji Rao Road, K.R. Circle, Agrahara Circle etc., However, the MC has limited this patchwork too to roads in the heart of the city, while ignoring the damaged roads in localities.

The pothole dotted roads and poor condition of roads in localities has resulted in many road accidents taking place, with motorists getting injured. The condition of roads in layouts along the ring road is more deplorable. The roads in these layouts were asphalted only when they were laid and have not seen any re-asphalting or repairs since then. Also, just patch work of roads in localities have often resulted in uneven and bumpy surface, posing a threat to motorists

While the MCC has ignored repair and maintenance of roads in localities, it has launched white topping works on 46 kms of roads at a cost of Rs. 460 crore. This white topping works is taken up at present only on Inter-state highways that pass through the city.

Meanwhile, the MCC is running short of Bitumen (Tar), a vital Petroleum byproduct, used for road works, due to disruption in supplies on account of the ongoing West Asia conflict. Countries such as Iran, UAE, USA, Somalia and Columbia are the main suppliers of Bitumen to India. But due to US-Israel and Iran war, the supply chain has been badly disrupted, resulting in severe shortage of the vital product and abnormal hike in prices. India has been importing 2.5 to 3.2 Million Metric tonne s of Bitumen every year. But the supplies has been severely hit for the past couple of months owing to the West Asia war, which has severely impacted economies globally.