Tackling city chaos: Bengaluru’s experiment on governance could be model for other Indian cities

Sign up now: Get STs newsletters delivered to your inbox

Bengaluru’s 14 million residents spend half their day stuck in gridlocked traffic.

PHOTO: AFP

Summary

• Bengaluru faces severe issues: traffic, water scarcity, flooding and uncoordinated agency work.
• The city is reorganising into five mini-corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA),led by the Chief Minister, for better coordination.
• Concerns exist that the GBA centralises state control, potentially reducing local accountability despite aims to improve city management.

AI generated

BENGALURU - Rage is a common emotion on the roads and footpaths of Bengaluru.

The Silicon Valley of India has been an administrative disaster for years, with companies such as digital trucking giant BlackBuck even threatening to leave the city over stubborn potholes that make it impossible for employees to get to work on time.

In a weary post with a heartbreak emoji on X in September, BlackBuck co-founder Rajesh Yabaji announced that after nine years, his company was moving out of Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road – home to over 500 technology companies – citing what he called the “lowest intent” to fix congestion and crumbling infrastructure.

Two heavyweight entrepreneurs, Aarin Capital chief Mohandas Pai and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, responded, calling it “a big failure of governance” that needs “emergency measures”.

Bengaluru’s 14 million residents spend half their day stuck in gridlocked traffic. The city ranks third-worst globally in a traffic index compiled by Dutch navigation service TomTom.

Every summer, the water runs dry. Every monsoon,

the city’s poshest suburbs flood.