After back-to-back rounds of repair and over ₹5,000 crore in expenditure, Bengaluru’s roads are again riddled with potholes following recent rainfall. Commuters across the city report worsening travel conditions, with major roads and even flyovers dotted with dangerous gaps and surface failures. Despite civic officials’ claims of relentless repair efforts, citizens say patchwork repairs lack durability. The situation has renewed public outrage over road quality, financial accountability, and the city’s preparedness for monsoon-induced stress.
In a city that brands itself as India’s tech capital, the state of public roads continues to challenge its urban credibility. According to traffic tracking platforms, a 10-km commute in Bengaluru now takes over 40 minutes—an ordeal worsened by potholes that have reappeared within days of minor showers. Experts and citizens alike question the utility of the ₹5,365 crore spent in just two years on asphalting, white-topping, and other road projects. Outer zones resemble rural tracks, and arterial roads—meant to sustain heavy vehicular flow—are suffering from rapid degradation. Environmental planners argue that poor drainage, haphazard resurfacing, and compromised materials worsen the impact of seasonal rain, with even newly built roads showing early signs of decay. With an average annual rainfall of nearly 1,000mm, the city’s failure to implement climate-resilient road design has only deepened mistrust in civic administration.
The condition is especially alarming in school zones, flyovers, and dense residential clusters. Residents in areas like BTM Layout, Shantinagar, and Sarvagnanagar report physical injuries from vehicle jolts, with two-wheeler riders being most vulnerable. Many allege that civic agencies often use substandard asphalt or apply shallow layers to maximise billing while minimising durability. In response, the city corporation has activated zonal task forces empowered to allocate funds and respond to public complaints. Engineers are reportedly being held accountable for delays, but with potholes reappearing faster than they can be fixed, the trust deficit between governance and citizens continues to widen. Safety-conscious residents have begun crowd-sourcing real-time pothole locations online, hoping that digital complaints might prompt faster action than traditional grievance channels.
While the civic body insists it is working “relentlessly,” the lack of systemic reform in road maintenance remains glaring. According to road repair protocols, potholes must be cut squarely, cleaned thoroughly, and compacted with quality tar. In practice, shortcuts abound—patches are often filled hastily, without sealing edges or compacting layers. Climate experts caution that with rising temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns, India’s cities need to move beyond reactive repairs and adopt climate-adaptive road technologies. Bengaluru, they say, must pilot green infrastructure, porous pavements, and decentralised water absorption systems to avoid both road degradation and urban flooding. Yet such forward-looking projects remain largely absent in the city’s infrastructure roadmap.
The return of potholes just weeks after public works were completed reflects a larger urban crisis—where short-term fixes, poor oversight, and a lack of citizen participation erode faith in public systems. It also exposes the deeper inequality in urban development, where tech corridors are prioritised while residential roads languish. If Bengaluru is to truly be a model for sustainable and inclusive urbanisation, then roads—basic yet vital—must be built with integrity, foresight, and public accountability. Until then, potholes will remain the most visible symbol of urban neglect, disrupting lives and challenging the very idea of smart cities.
