Bengaluru: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw leads campaign against Church Street contractors

Bengaluru’s endeavour to build pedestrian-friendly roads was slated to kickstart with the makeover of Church Street. A 715-metre road was reconstructed and the aim of this makeover was to promote walking in a safe manner. But unfortunately, in less than four months, some experts are questioning the way in which it was done.

It has invited strong criticism from some eminent citizens of the city like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

One cannot deny the fact that it rains in Bengaluru throughout the year. Some say that the surface of the road that suits pedestrians may not be ideal for motorists. It has also been detected that the touted Kasuti-patterned cobblestoned carriageway which was highlighted as the show-stealer by the government is already coming off in a few patches.

In one of her tweets On 24 June, Mazumdar-penned down: “We must bring road contractors who do shoddy work like Church St to book n slap them with severe penalties n even jail if they don’t rectify.” According to a report by Mint, she has also questioned about quality of audit procedures.

In response to the allegations put forth by Mazumdar-Shaw, Bengaluru Mayor R Sampath Raj remarked that the damage to the road “appears to have been done deliberately”.