Bengaluru’s K100 ‘model’ drain: New documentary tells story so far

The ongoing rejuvenation of Bengaluru’s K100 stormwater drain (SWD) into a waterfront for public recreation is the focus of a new documentary ‘K100 Citizens’ Waterway’. It is made by Pravar Chaudhary and Puneet Sachdev of citizen action group Bengawalk.

K100 denotes the primary SWD (or rajakaluve) of the Koramangala Valley, starting from Shanthala Silks near the erstwhile Dharmabuddhi lake (now Majestic bus stand) and draining into Bellandur Lake. The 12-km drain has been taken up as a pilot to restore the city’s larger network of 850 km SWDs.

Using interviews, maps and music, the documentary gives an overview of how K100 turned from a traditional water management system to an open sewer, the challenges faced by civic agencies and architect Naresh Narasimhan’s Mod Foundation that has conceptualised the project, and its status today.

‘Significant progress’

Walkways, arched bridges and seating are promised under this BBMP project of nearly Rs 175 crore. It was supposed to open to the public in March 2023 but is running behind schedule. Pending BWSSB works and a hiccup in the payment of contractors are some reasons.

Naresh says the 25-minute film aims to show the progress made so far, which is significant for a project of this complexity. He illustrates: the sewage flow has been brought down from 130 million to less than 4 million litres per day, local communities now have white-topped and well-lit roads; K100 is the only SWD in Bengaluru that didn’t flood in the 2022 rains.

The documentary shows more: property rates along the drain have gone up from Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,000 per sq ft, and locals who were selling spare vehicle parts are now opening ice cream parlours as footfalls have improved.

Revamping the image of rajakaluve from being “an urban disgrace to an urban asset” was tough. His team reduced the height of concrete walls bordering them from 7 ft to 3.5 ft with the hope that better visibility to a stream in one’s backyard would prevent people from littering it.

Naresh says six months of work is pending. Post that, the city will have a new stream as an upcoming sewage treatment plant (STP) will discharge 5 MLD of water into K100, and also incorporate PTS (plants treating sewage) technology from Israel.

Boost to walkability

The K100 project also features a walkway of about 8 km from Shanti Nagar to Koramangala, which fits into Bengawalk’s vision of making cities more walkable. “When we think of a metro or a flyover project, we have a mental model of how it would turn out. K100 had no existing reference. This got us curious,” Pravar cites another reason why they took up this assignment.

Shooting this documentary has made the duo less “cynical” of public officials. The latter said fixing the ‘defective work’ done previously was a big undertaking and that three to four sets of workers quit every day as they did not want to work amid stench and mosquitoes.