MCC and CESC compete with each other to leave roads dug up and untarred; residents fear accidents as monsoon sets in

Mysuru: Is Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) Limited, competing with each other, by digging trenches at their own will and leaving it without a patch of tar, only to wait for a mishap to happen.

This strange doubt may definitely trigger in one’ s mind, given the haphazard manner in which,  most of the neatly asphalted city roads are found replete with trenches dug up for civil works, but left with a cover of mud, to gradually develop a pothole, risking the taxpayers lives.

The monsoon has arrived, with Mysuru city waiting its share of downpour, but MCC and CESC lack any common sense about how the tragedies unfold on city roads, if the surface remains uneven. Take a round of Jayachamaraja Wadiyar Circle (Hardinge Circle), Narayana Shastry-Dhanvantri Road Junction, Jodi Tenginamara Road in Bannimantap, Yadavagiri Circle, Paduvarahalli, Ambarish Road, Kalidasa Road, Gokulam Main Road and Dr. Sudha Murty Road to name a few. These roads have been bearing the brunt of pickaxes and drilling machines, with the horizontally dug roads to lay power cables by CESC.

A week ago, when the city received pre-monsoon rains, the storm water accumulated in the potholes, forcing motorists to wade through water logged roads, albeit with a caution. At some places, the rainy situation disrupted free traffic movement.

Over a year ago, under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme, MCC took up works to lay water pipes to overhaul drinking water network. Yet again, under AMRUT 2.0, works have been taken up, with huge concrete pipes dumped in various parts of the city.