One house, multiple numbers;multiple numbers, one house

Due to poor planning, the real estate frenzy that accompanied the population explosion in the city has led to a situation where Bengalureans are left thoroughly confused. House and street numbers are haphazard, cross roads and main roads are in disorder, and navigation is a nightmare.

Now, with the fast-growing online delivery services, where everything from cabs to salons comes to our doorstep, the poor organisation of the city has become painfully obvious.

Niveditha Addangadi, a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout comments on the problem of area names in her residence: “There is Mahalakshmipuram, Mahalakshmi Layout and its further extension, all side by side. There are two houses with door number 70 within 500 meters distance of each other, my house in the further extension and another in the same layout.”

She regularly receives letters meant for the other house. “Cabbies and delivery persons mistakenly come to my house. I have returned their posts to the post office and sometimes even delivered it myself when I’ve received important bank documents.”

Addangadi rues, “This is a serious issue we’ve been facing from the last 15 years! This is clearly irresponsibility of the authorities.”

Echoing her view is Anita Shivakumar, a senior counselor, who recalls how she once spent almost an hour searching for a house numbered 36 in Shankarpura, but had found two adjoining houses with the numbers 28 and 49 respectively.

She says, “It might be difficult to set this right as documents are already filed for the properties, but authorities must take the initiative to solve this public inconvenience. Time matter to us.”

Mahalingappa, a businessman draws attention to the lack of maintenance from the municipality with regard to the signboards.

“The boards with street number and names are often not visible since they are next to large advertisements. Besides, there are so many pamphlets stuck to the boards,” he points out.

In some areas, he says, the names of local authorities on the boards take up more place on the board, rather than the actual street names and numbers.

Besides, the boards are often stolen to be hawked away for money. “The metal boards are stolen at night to be sold off. It is not that obvious in developed areas as there is a fear of CCTVs, but in the outskirts, we can see several boards missing. Police and local authorities need to pay more attention and take action on this,” he says.

Tejaswini, who recently moved to Electronic City explains how there are two ‘2nd cross’ roads linked to the same main road. “I realised the problem when I received a delivery from Amazon and the guy was on another 2nd cross road in the same locality.”

There are some places with no proper address at all. “In my mother’s house in Arkavati Layout, there are no street names at all. Even post offices are not able to locate the place. Authorities need to take responsibility,” she states.

However, Shivakumar, a professor states that the planning has been more efficient in newer areas such as Yelahanka compared to older areas where continuous streets jump numbers.

“For instance, in Malleswaram, there is no continuity in the cross roads. There is no link between the 13th cross road and 13th A cross road.”

Shivakumar notes that this is “terrible for citizens.”

“Localites themselves get confused, so imagine the fate of newcomers to the city. We need a more efficient system with continuous running numbers while naming the streets,” he says.