Work began during peak hours

BANGALORE: Traffic jams on Mysore Road are nothing new. But the lack of coordination among various civic agencies left commuters at the end of their wits. Trees on either side of Mysore Road were cut down a few months ago. However, surface roots were not removed. It is learnt that a BBMP contractor, who had taken up road widening work of Mysore Road, engaged a JCB on Monday to clear these stumps with the roots.DCP Traffic (West) Mahadevappa said that they will soon write to the BBMP. “The contractor wanted to remove other surface roots on Mysore Road. We had not given him the permission. Earlier, we had advised him not to undertake the work during peak hours. We had told the contractor to undertake the work only during weekends. But, he executed the work in the middle of the week, leading to  the chaos,” Mahadevappa said.Narasimha Reddy, the police inspector attached to Chamarajpet police station,  said that this not only caused huge pits, but also damaged BWSSB pipes, BSNL cables  and BESCOM wires. Traffic police managed to fill the pits with two lorry loads of soil to ease the traffic flow. Soon, BWSSB dug up the road on Wednesday night, and  it was BSNL’s turn to ravage it on Thursday. Due to improper filling up of the pits, potholes emerged again after vehicular movement. Commuters had to find their way through the congested road. This led to slow movement of traffic.“It’s because of the BBMP that we are at the receiving end. People  are cursing traffic police for the traffic jam,” Mahadevappa said.