Around 20 schoolchildren narrowly escaped injury on Friday morning after their bus got stuck in a large pothole on the waterlogged Panathur-Balagere Road. Dashcam footage from a vehicle behind showed the bus sinking as one of its wheels slipped into a rain-filled crater. The road, already weakened by overnight showers, gave way under the bus’s weight.
All children were evacuated safely through the rear emergency exit. Passers-by, traffic police and the driver of another bus assisted in pulling the students out one by one. The children were briefly stranded on the roadside before being shifted to another bus. No injuries were reported.
#Bengaluru A school bus carrying around 20 kids almost toppled on the crater-filled, slushy Panathur–Balagere road. Children had to be rescued through the back door. Ironically, CM & DyCM had visited and inspected this very stretch just a few months ago. pic.twitter.com/lL8tUpI1lg
— Hamsaveni.N (@Hamsaa04) September 12, 2025
Poor road infra concerns
The incident has reignited concerns over the Panathur-Balagere stretch, which residents have long described as a “death trap”, the News Minute reported. The road is notorious for waterlogging, crater-like potholes and persistent traffic snarls.
Despite repeated complaints, commuters say little has changed, with the road remaining among the worst-maintained in Bengaluru. Locals reportedly also claimed that Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah had inspected the road but that did not change anything on the ground.
Bengaluru’s pothole problem
Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar recently acknowledged widespread criticism over the city’s pothole crisis. He said temporary and permanent measures were being rolled out, with police directed to flag hazardous stretches. “Around 10,000 potholes have been identified. As many as 5,377 have been closed. We have a program to fill the remaining 5,000,” he said in August.
While locals have been complaining about the same to the authorities for long, recently Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also tagged DK Shivkumar, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and others to point out the poor infrastructure of the city. She said that the city has the “best talent and the best weather but the worst infrastructure”. Responding to her remarks, Shivakumar had said, “Agree with you, Bengaluru has always had the talent, the weather, and the spirit. What it lacked was political will. That’s exactly what we are fixing now.”
According to the BBMP, 5000 potholes were mapped citywide, with 4,400 deemed critical. As of August 26, around 2,400 had been filled.