How Bengaluru transformed from a pensioner’s paradise to a ‘swalpa adjust maadi’ city

MC Policy Next

In January this year, the Supreme Court cited Bengaluru, India's tech capital, as a cautionary example of haphazard urban development while warning the Chandigarh administration against thoughtless construction.

“The warning flagged by the city of Bengaluru needs to be given due attention by the legislature, executive, and policymakers. It is high time that, before permitting urban development, EIA (environmental impact assessment) of such development needs to be done,” Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna said on January 10.Once a pensioner's paradise, Bengaluru has grown by leaps and bounds, causing enormous pressure on its infrastructure due to unplanned construction activities and also due to inadequate mass transit system. The city's population has increased to an estimated 13-16 million from 1.6 million in 1971 and 8.7 million in 2011, when the last census was conducted.

According to the transport department’s latest records, an average of 775 vehicles jostle for road space every km in Bengaluru. Until February this year, the city's road network, spanning 14,000 km, had a total vehicle population of 10.8 million.

When Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru, set out to build the city in the 1530s, his mother is said to have given him two pieces of advice: “Keregalam kattu, marangalam nedu (Build lakes, plant trees).”

But the city's urban planners have brushed aside good counsel and filled the lakes to build the Majestic bus terminus, Kanteerava stadium, and thousands of residential colonies. Farmers too sold their agricultural land to real estate developers who built IT parks and apartment complexes. This is also a perfect example of how unplanned developmental activities can ruin a city.

Bengaluru now battles traffic jams, flash floods/waterlogging, shortage of drinking water, poor garbage disposal, shrinking water bodies and rising pollution.

Known for its green cover and good weather, the IT boom in the late 1990s, combined with a massive real-estate boom, hit Bengaluru.

The transformation from the garden city to a tech and startup hub came at a cost: trees and lakes made way for apartment complexes and tech parks. Letting off sewage and dumping garbage and construction debris into water bodies continues unabated. "Swalpa adjust maadi (please adjust)" summarises the common man's tolerance and workaround to poor governance and rising problems.

Infra projects

In the FY24 state budget alone, the government allocated Rs 9,698 crore for Bengaluru’s development. Karnataka Urban Development Department records show the state government spent Rs 28,356 crore from 2016 to 2022 for Bengaluru.

In September 2021, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said the state government spent Rs 20,060 crore on Bengaluru’s roads over five years. However, there have been allegations about the poor quality of roads/infrastructure work in the city.

Separately, there is a major push to expand highways in the state. Records of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways show the amounts allocated for the construction and maintenance of national highways in Karnataka: Rs 7,900.20 crore in FY20, Rs 5,729.05 crore in FY21, Rs 7,664.78 crore in FY22 and Rs 7,542.34 crore in FY23.

With elections taking place in #Karnataka on May 10, join us in conversation with policymakers and industry leaders as they discuss issues, agendas and policy changes that will shape the future of this investment destination.

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— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) April 28, 2023

Policy Next: 'Press Reboot - Resolving Bengaluru’s Urban Mess'

Moneycontrol, through its ‘Policy Next’ series, is building a space for nuanced conversations on India’s political economy and issues shaping the nation. The Karnataka chapter, titled The Big Karnataka Resurgence, will deep-dive into the opportunities and challenges for the state.

On May 5, a session named ‘Press Reboot - Resolving Bengaluru’s Urban Mess’ moderated by Chandra R Srikanth, Editor (Tech, Startups & New Economy), Moneycontrol, will discuss the major issues of Bengaluru.

The panel will have insights from prominent citizens and experts including Revathy Ashok, CEO and managing trustee of Bengaluru Political Action Committee, Ashwin Mahesh, urban planner and head of the AAP manifesto committee (Karnataka), RK Misra, co-chairman of ASSOCHAM (Karnataka) and co-founder of Yulu, Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Citizens for Bengaluru, V Ravichandar, urban planner and honorary director of Bengaluru International Centre.

Register here to attend the event.

With crucial elections taking place in Karnataka, we carve the path for the state’s future along with policymakers and leaders at #MCPolicyNext - The Big Karnataka Resurgence.

Join us on 5th May, 2023 in Bengaluru, register now - https://t.co/9BGsluNPz6 pic.twitter.com/Eu4ouapWyh

— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) April 24, 2023

Eye on Bengaluru

Ahead of the May 10 assembly elections, Moneycontrol, in its series titled Karnataka Polls: Eye on Bengaluru, highlighted pressing issues that plague the country’s tech and startup capital.

The bustling city is paradoxically also the land of apathetic infrastructure and a slew of unfinished flyovers, rail overbridges and underpasses. Although the tech capital is growing at 5G speed, infrastructure development is stuck at 2G pace.

Techie residence areas like Bellandur and Mahadevapura, which were brought into the corporation’s fold in 2007, have a skeletal public infrastructure. In the summers, these areas struggle with a water shortage and have to rely heavily on tankers. During the rains, even a brief spell can drown these places completely.

Another major concern is poor waste management. The city generates about 6,100 tonnes of waste daily, but only 33 percent of households segregate their waste.

‘Lay-a-road-dig-it-up’ almost works as a rap theme for Bengaluru. Ahead of the assembly polls, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has been asphalting roads in several locations across the city on a war footing. But anyone who has lived in the city long enough is sure to wager that these very roads will be dug up soon.

Last year's flash floods in Bengaluru were a reminder of nature’s fury making no distinction between the rich and poor and between multi-crore-rupee villas and shanties. While the uber-rich lost their luxury cars and had to be evacuated from their posh, flooded homes in tractors and boats, about 1,000 families living in shanties in Munnekolala near tech hub Marathahalli lost their belongings – household goods, vessels, rice, and other provisions, and their children's school books and uniforms were washed away.

The Bengaluru Metro, which was meant to ease traffic congestion in the city, is moving at a snail's pace. Twelve years after South India's first metro network started, the Namma Metro network in Bengaluru covers only 69 km. That works out to an average addition of barely 6 km every year since 2011.

The number of buses of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the sole operator of public bus services in the city, has stagnated for nine years – at 6,767 in FY23 compared with 6,775 in FY14. In contrast, the number of private vehicles – cars and two-wheelers – surged 85 percent to 10.9 million in FY23 from 5.9 million in FY14.

Bengaluru’s suburban rail project, pending for more than four decades and approved by the Centre in 2020, is yet to see the light of day. Work has started on only one of the four corridors of the 149 km suburban rail project.

First and last-mile connectivity is also a huge concern that the administration has failed to address. In addition to poor last-mile connectivity, other factors including broken pavements, poorly lit streets, and the absence of proper bus shelters, deter people from using public transport in the country's tech hub. Commuters cite the absence of shared autorickshaws, errant regular autos, poor feeder bus services and the lack of parking facilities at most Metro stations as major concerns.