'Walking in Bengaluru is an extreme sport': Techie complains of broken footpaths in viral video

Stills of the pavements at Konanakunte bus stop. (Image credit: @yogeeshgp/X)

A software professional in Bengaluru recently equated walking in the city to playing an extreme sport after he narrowly escaped falling and getting hurt while trying to board a bus at Konanakunte bus stop near Forum South Mall last week.

"Walking in Bengaluru is an extreme sport. Need the skill to balance on tiny concrete strips and to jump from footpath to road!" Yogeesh Prabhuswamy Gandige, 41, wrote on X and shared a couple of videos showing the broken footpaths, rainwater sponge drains, and debris lying on the pavement and the road.

Walking in Bengaluru is an extreme sports. Need the skill to balance on tiny concrete strip and to jump from footpath to road!
No, I didn't dare take this bus!Just one slip and a lifetime injury - that's how pedestrians are treated in the so-called "Infra Era"! #NadeyaluBidi pic.twitter.com/BGUztE8Y8m Yogeesh Prabhuswamy (@yogeeshgp) September 30, 2024

One of the videos also showed bus commuters standing atop the rainwater sponge structures precariously, waiting for their turn to board a bus. Gandige was supposed to board the same bus but had to give it a miss because he did not want to rush over the pavement. "No, I didn't dare take this bus! Just one slip and a lifetime injury - that's how pedestrians are treated in the so-called 'Infra Era'!" he wrote.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Yogeesh said that he frequently uses the Konanakunte bus stop, and the condition of the footpath and the road often causes him anxiety and delays.

Several X users identified the drain structures as rainwater sponges that were part of Bengaluru's smart city plans. Others claimed that most footpaths in the city are irregular and can prove disastrous.

"Even more shameful for BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) is that these have been built just now, not old crumbling infrastructure," commented Shantanu Goel (@shantanugoel). "Even new development is being done in such a shoddy way that there's no hope. And this is the case allover. Whitefield is covered with this wherever they've built these footpaths. And even this took several months to cover just 400 metres"

Another X user AravBizBuilder (@foundrarav) said, "Walking in Bengaluru indeed requires skills of an athlete, with these narrow and uneven footpaths, one wrong step can be disastrous. I feel Whitefield is the worst affected, months of construction just to create more problems for pedestrians."

"Bangalore footpaths are the most irregular footpaths. And whatever left is occupied by construction material which at places occupy even the road. Pedestrians have no recourse but to walk on the main road always looking over their shoulders for speeding vehicles," added Mavi (@mavi_lt91).