Road withstands test of time, floods For nine months, residents oversaw laying of a 2-km stretch in Ashwini Layout http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/MIRRORNEW/navigator.asp?Daily=MMIR&showST=true S Kushala kushala.satyanarayana @timesgroup.com
A four-year-old road in the city has weathered 10 flooding incidents. If you had expected the road to have craters,you're wrong. It is still intact and maintenance-free.
If the 2-km stretch in Ashwini Layout, off Koramangala-Indiranagar Inner Ring Road, has had a long life span, thecredit should go to it sresidents who stood with contractors and workers to monitor every inch of the road construction for eight-nine months.
Armed with the work order, the Indian Road Congress (IRC) specifications, and scales and markers to measure road thickness, a handful of residents, led by association president M V K Anilkumar, endured heat and dust every day (barring Sundays) for six-eight hours while the road was being laid. The contractor, who resented the residents' initiative, even delayed the work by three months. It all started in 2008-09 when the Palike took up asphalting work on the 2-km stretch of Ashwini Layout, covering three main roads and six cross roads.
Situated on the catchment of Koramangala valley, the layout is prone to flooding during rains. A sum of Rs97 lakh had been sanctioned for the road-laying work. This time, residents decided to keep tabs.
Anilkumar, a member of Kria Katte, a forum instrumental in pushing RTI in the state, procured the work order from BBMP as well as the IRC guidelines. The basic work involves laying of a15-cm thick covering of small stones, which are levelled using a road-roller. The next step is the laying of wet mix macadam (10 cm thickness)—a mix of jelly stones,quarry dust and cement.The contractor had allegedly tried to hoodwink residents by using only jelly stones.
"I stopped the work, called the engineer and showed him the specifications. He ordered the contractor to follow the guidelines. Since we measured each and every layer, the contractor could not fool us," said Anilkumar.
Residents monitored work at each step. Anilkumar used a long stick, marked 15 cm, 10 cm and 5 cm, to measure the road thickness.
The road was then left for curing, after which the work came to a halt. Neither the contractor nor workers showed up for a few months. Anilkumar filed an RTI application. A notice was issued to the area area engineer and the work resumed.
The last bit of work—laying of 5cm thick coat of asphalt and seal coating—was completed. Seal coating is the last layer of quarry dust and tar mixture, which gives smoothness to roads and removes pores. "We would stand throughout the day with Anilkumar and sometimes the work would go on till midnight. In the end, it was all worth it. Even after four years and many flooding incidents, the road is intact," said Pradeep Shetty, who has been living in Ashwini Layout III main road since 2001.
When BBMP's audit cel lconducted the quality check, it could only say, "This road has maintained quality as per specifications."
Residents' association president Anilkumar measured the road thickness at every step while it was being laid | 
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