Big plans, broken roads: Bengaluru’s civic year in a nutshell

From asphalting roads to ‘Kasa Suriyuva Habba’, the Bengaluru civic authorization rolled retired aggregate initiatives and announced ‘futuristic’ projects successful 2025 but erstwhile again failed to code the city’s basal pressing issues.

This year, pedestrians had to hunt for the footpaths yet again, dustbins edged towards extinction, and never-ending asphalting works connected stretches specified arsenic J.C. Road troubled commuters.

As if these problems were not enough, tree-fall incidents claimed 4 lives successful the city, portion stray dogs and mediocre roadworthy stretches claimed 1 beingness each and near respective others injured. Sadly, nary of these issues received sustained attraction from the civic authority, whose superior absorption remained connected ensuring a creaseless ‘transition phase’ from a azygous corp to 5 civic bodies.

Roads and potholes

According to the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) data, civic bodies filled astir 22,000 potholes successful the metropolis during the monsoon season. However, these potholes continued to reappear passim the season, triggering important nationalist backlash.

The contented escalated further erstwhile a logistics steadfast announced its determination to exit the Outer Ring Road (ORR). The statement intensified aft concern leaders specified arsenic Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Mohandas Pai joined the conversation. A BMTC autobus breakdown connected the Outer Ring Road exposed years of negligence and mediocre readying successful the enlargement of eastbound Bengaluru.

The civic authority’s effect was constricted to speedy fixes, which neither lasted nor addressed basal causes. Amid threats to the city’s greenish cover, asphalting works were carried retired without leaving ungraded abstraction for trees, an contented that experts accidental contributes to tree-falls. According to the data, Bengaluru recorded 1,200 tree-falls this year, the highest successful a azygous year, and implicit 2,100 incidents of histrion branches snapping.

Delayed J.C. Road white-topping works triggered postulation chaos and affected businesses on the one-kilometre stretch. A akin concern unfolded erstwhile the civic assemblage undertook white-topping enactment connected Panathur Road. Delays connected the agelong caused chaos astatine the Marathahalli junction, near HAL Airport Road choked, extended highest hours significantly, and frustrated commuters.

While roads remained a large concern, footpath encroachment drives mostly resulted successful nationalist backlash implicit ‘illegal’ evictions. While hawkers were targeted, garbage and debris clearance connected footpaths remained unchanged. To code this, the Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited altered discarded postulation timings and intensified the postulation of fines. The bureau besides piloted a discarded postulation kiosk successful Adugodi, which has remained non-operational for astir parts of the day.

Stray canine menace

Seetappa, a 68-year-old antheral was mauled to decease by stray dogs. The highest fig of dog-bite incidents was recorded successful 2023, with cases crossing the 25,000 mark. Although ambitious and wide praised stray canine feeding and microchipping projects were announced, they didn’t get attraction from the recently formed corporations.