Anti-Corruption Forum president Ramesh NR filed a complaint with the ED

The Anti-Corruption Forum’s president, Ramesh NR, filed a charge with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday, claiming that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) embezzled Rs 46,300 crores that were allotted for road construction projects between 2013 and 2023–2024.

Over the ten-year period from 2013–14 to 2023–24, an astounding Rs 46,292.23 crore (forty-six thousand two hundred ninety-two crore twenty-three lakh) was made available for the construction of major and ward roads in the 198 Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards. The lawsuit claims that the money, which was intended for flyovers, underbridges, and white-topping highways, has been totally misappropriated under the name of road construction.

Even though the “Roads Infrastructure Department” and the “Project (Central) Department” are working on road development projects with such large funding, at least 25,000 potholes are made annually. Over 30,000 potholes were found during a personal examination of the main, sub-arterial, and arterial roads within the BBMP borders, which covered 1,980 kilometers between October 11 and October 24, 2024.

According to the letter, “gold plates” might be used to pave the 1,980 km of lengthy roadways that fall within the Greater BBMP’s authority if the enormous 46,300 crore grant that was made available for road construction over the last ten years has been used effectively.

Despite the release of these substantial sums, 198 wards of BBMP roads have tens of thousands of potholes that are being formed one after the other, and over the last ten years, more poor-quality roads have been built than in any other metropolitan region in the nation. The letter went on to say that this is a very obvious insight into the Greater BBMP’s crooked system.

The BBMP lacks a laboratory to verify the quality of the raw materials used for asphalting projects, while spending at least seven to eight thousand crores of rupees annually on road construction. At the moment, BBMP depends on labs in Pune and Hyderabad. It would only cost two to three crore rupees to build a laboratory to test materials, but the BBMP hasn’t done anything about it.

The construction of the laboratory is the only thing that can stop the massive looting activities by these officials in collaboration with rogue contractors. The primary cause of this is the widespread corruption that exists in the BBMP “Roads Infrastructure Department,” “Project (Central) Department,” and “Divisional Executive Engineers’ Office.” According to the letter, top authorities have resisted the proposal to construct such a laboratory, which would assist limit theft by unscrupulous officials and contractors.

The BBMP works continue to be of poor quality as a result of this kind of very corrupt system. The Chief Commissioner and Senior Officers of the BBMP, as well as the State Government, are not even trying to stop the pervasive corruption system that is rife in the BBMP’s primary departments. The letter concluded that local contractors have stopped participating in the BBMP’s tender processes because they are unable to handle the system of excessive corruption.

In the past few years, no local contractor has taken part in the vast amount of work that the BBMP has invited; instead, contractors from neighboring states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and North India are participating, but it is unlikely that they will produce high-quality work.