IT workers taking to social media to rant their outrage, man sitting on a pothole to protest, and a founder questioning the government – these have become casual for India’s Silicon city, Bengaluru. Karnataka’s capital city remains in headlines more because of the discussions on its infrastructure, especially potholes, rather than it being an information technology hub in the country. The roads and traffic have become all-weather chaos for Bengulearans. Social media is flooded with it. But what do ministers say?

” Thousands of crores have been given,” said Karnataka minister MB Patil while expressing his opinion against a post by Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Bengaluru’s potholes. It was not the first though, Shaw has highlighted the issue on multiple occasions. So have thousands of citizens, but to no avail. The potholes stay, and so do the people as they try hard to make peace with their daily nightmare. 

The IT hubs – ORR, IT park and the Whitefield area among others are all on the same page when it comes to traffic and potholes in the city.

Why the discussion again?

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, in the past few days, twice flagged issues with Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure. The latest was where she quoted a business investor. 

“I had an overseas business visitor to Biocon Park who said ‘ Why are the roads so bad and why is there so much garbage around?  Doesn’t the Govt want to support investment? I have just come from China and cant understand why India can’t get its act together especially when the winds are favourable?’ @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @PriyankKharge,” she said.

Reacting to this, Karnataka Minister MB Patil said that Kiran Mazumdar is a big asset to the state, and country. “She has created a name for Bengaluru with Biocon. Bengaluru has also given back to her. It is mutual.”

“Once there were potholes, and heavy rainfalls. Now it’s been attended. Thousands of crores have been given, and the work is going on… When the work is going on, you tweeting it again is not in good taste…” Patil added, expressing discomfort with repeated posts on the same issue. 

Reacting to the Biocon founder’s post, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge said he was not sure “which part of Bengaluru they have seen”.

“As I have said, the work is in progress. We are growing at a rapid pace, and whatever is necessary for the infrastructure improvement, we are doing it,” he added.

A few days back, she had quoted TV Mohandas Pai’s post, saying, “I also am puzzled about why the political leadership is not showing the political urgency to fix our city and make it world class.  It doesn’t take more than a focus in terms of budgetary allocation and execution.  A billion dollars needs to be ring-fenced to do this.”

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In his post, Mohandas Pai tagged Bengaluru urban development minister DK Shivakumar and Priyank Kharge sharing his “feedback” . “This  is not the result of growth but huge corruption and bad governance. Please help @GBA_office @GBAChiefComm  cannot we have roads without potholes? This is not AI work but done for more than 200 years!”

Again, the suggestion was on a viral post of a user who said that it took him 1 hour 45 minutes to travel from Bellandur to Bengaluru airport. “Insane,” he said, adding that the roads are “all dug up and pot hole ridden. Sorry to say but I think Bangalore has the worst roads of India”.

In another incident, a man, seemingly frustrated with the potholes trouble, sat on one in the middle of a busy road in Munnekolla.

Man sitting on a pothole in Bengaluru to protest the deteriorating infrastructure. (Reddit)

Bengaluru and potholes: The forever debate

Housing hundreds of top IT companies, some of them world renowned like Infosys, TCS among others, Bengaluru has boasted long enough as the powering pillar of India’s growing IT dream. But the truth lies on the roads. Yes, the city’s worsening infrastructure, devastating roads, slow-pace public transport has everyone in the city at the edge. 

And this comes literally on huge costs as the rental prices in Bengaluru continue to remain another concern. On Monday, the Chief Commissioner of Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) instructed officials to fasten the repair work on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) stretch from Hebbal to Nayandahalli, which is full of potholes, broken footpaths, and uncollected garbage.

This is a picture that every Bengalurean sees everyday. The ongoing repair work has also been hit by the caste survey as the civic officials have been given tasks of enumerators. Though, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has asked officials to repair the roads.

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Pounding rain has hit the work, which over 200 engineers from five municipal corporations under GBA are working day and night. The festive season has further slowed the task with less workers available for the same. 

“Pothole repair works are in full swing across Bengaluru. Our engineers and workers are on the ground every day, ensuring lasting quality in every repair. We are committed to delivering smoother and safer roads that match Bengaluru’s growing aspirations,” Karnataka Deputy CM Shivakumar wrote on X a week ago.

He recently compared London’s traffic with Bengaluru, saying why people blame the IT city only. 

“In London, people spend three hours in traffic. In Delhi, it takes one-and-a-half hours to travel from the airport to Parliament. But only Bengaluru’s traffic has more noise. Why,” he asked and broke it down: “Because we haven’t curbed media freedom!” he said, further fuming the internet and Bengalureans.

The big question: How to fix Bengaluru?

Six years ago, the Bengaluru civic body, the BBMP, collaborated with local NGO – Janaagraha’s ichangemycity.com (ICMyC) to launch a mobile application. This application has a simple workflow of spotting a pothole, taking a picture of the pothole and posting it on a pothole fix mobile platform through the citizen’s mobile phone.

No one knows if the app really has been fruitful. Because the criticism and the potholes have only gone up. An IT worker suggested the employees of the entire workforce should be sent to work remotely, and the repair should be done. 

The solution lies in the intent. And the way the repairing is done to ensure that potholes don’t come up every other season. Bengaluru sees frequent rain every year, and the state government flags it as the main reason behind all the trouble. With technology and material, the city roads can be made commutable for the people.

Furthermore, Bengaluru has witnessed delays in flyover extension, its metro line expansion – which have been the other two big reasons for the mess. Tackling these would help the city breathe. De-cluttering Bengaluru by providing the resources in other Tier-2 cities would help limit migration, and reduce the burden of residency density as well.