What Is Happening With KRS Road?

KRS Road, one of the main roads of Mysore, has been closed for traffic from Tharaasu circle to Dasappa circle for more than five months now. Despite the dislocation of all the northern bus routes and the tremendous hardship caused to the road users, there has been very little in the way of protests from the public.

Most people in Mysore are not aware of what exactly is going on and why there is so much delay in reopening the road. Here is what we have found.

The Railways are building a new bridge for the Nanjangud line. To accommodate this bridge, KRS road had to be lowered. But there were water mains running just below the existing road and they had to be lowered too. The water mains were just one foot below the road surface and the pressure of the road traffic above caused them to leak significantly. To solve this problem, the mains will be several feet below the new road surface to insulate them from the effects of road traffic. The lowering of the water mains and the road surface are the works that are going on now.

Now the cause for the delay. When they were in the process of lowering the water mains, they found one more main which were not prepared for. It is shocking that MCC did not know how many water mains there were below the road. These are not some half inch water pipes which could be laid by some unscrupulous customer without MCC knowing about it, but huge water mains which supply water to thousands of people. It is mind-boggling that MCC could not know about the existence of such a main.

Anyway, the surprise finding of an extra main has upset all the plans of MCC and is causinng the delay. But since the Dasara is almost upon us, and KRS road is a very important road, the pipe work is being suspended and the road filled up and brought to its original state . The road will again be dug up after the Dasara and the work completed. Needless to say, the filling and re-digging will cost cost a lot of extra money.

It is surprising that modern management techniques like Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) are not being employed by MCC to manage any of its projects. These techiniques are used worldwide to cut costs and time.

Then there is the question of fixing the responsibility of this bungling. Will MCC identify the people responsible and punish them for causing time and cost overruns and causing extreme hardship to the citizens of Mysore?

Dr.Bhamy V. Shenoy, Convenor, Mysore Grahakara Parishat