Two years on, core parts of Bengaluru still wait for smart roads

Two years ago, the state government set out to redo major roads in central Bengaluru and give them a modern touch under the Smart Cities Mission project.

The Bengaluru Smart City Limited (BengSCL) promised to not only revitalise streets, footpaths and streetlights in the central business district but also make them future-ready with seamless integration of technology.

A total of 36 roads (spanning 30 kilometres) were taken up for development under 13 projects in 2019. The deadline for opening them to public was May 2020.

Cut to 2021. Most roads in the CBD look no more than heaps of mud and debris, the traffic situation has gone from bad to worse and there's little sign yet of the promised "smart" streets. How did things come to such a pass?

The project is going on even slower than the proverbial snail's pace.

Only 11 out of the 36 roads have been completed so far. Work on four roads has been put on hold while it's under various stages of implementation on the rest.

Since all these are busy roads, the works have badly affected the traffic. According to a recent report by the Bengaluru traffic police, as many as 45 roads are always choked during the peak hour.

Although the state government exempted construction and infrastructure works from the Covid lockdown, there was little improvement in the speed of the Smart Cities work. Angered by reports of inconvenience to the public around worksites, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa sought a detailed explanation from engineers on the speed of the project during a review meeting a fortnight ago. “Every day, I see that the work in the CBD is either half-done or is moving slowly. This is causing inconvenience to the public as well as the VIPs," he fumed at the meeting.

Unsurprisingly, a senior engineer at BengSCL attributed the slow pace of the work to the pandemic. “Due to the migration of workers during the lockdown, getting skilled workforce became a great challenge. Covid cases among workers also affected the work," the engineer told DH and claimed that they were "working day and night" to make up for lost time.

P Rajendra Cholan, Managing Director, BengSCL, is confident that 80% of the pending work would be completed by this month. “The work on 22 roads is almost done. About nine roads will be ready by the end of July. It's only three or four roads that require more time due to the incessant rains. Still, we'll complete them by the end of August,” he said.

Cholan revealed that obtaining clearances from the traffic police and other civic bodies also took considerable time. “We set a monthly deadline and completed seven roads in January alone. By now, about 21 roads are almost complete. Wherever the work is going on, we have allowed traffic, except for footpaths, which have been blocked,” he said.

Talking about the ‘smart’ features of the project, Cholan said the roads had been built to provide a seamless integration of different modes of transport and drive the city towards sustainable mobility. “The utility lines have been streamlined so that the roads don't have to be dug up in the future. Sprawling footpaths, cycle lanes and provisions for household-level service connections are some of the other features. The roads also have facilities for the seamless integration of technology in the future," he explained.

Civic activists have, however, criticised the work, saying it has eaten into pedestrian space at various places.

“On some of the roads, the footpaths aren't uniform. They are either narrowed or halved. Vehicle users have been given more importance,” said a civic activist from the CBD.

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