B’luru’s infra woes: Citizen power can do wonders

A trip around major locations across India’s own Silicon Valley becomes an eyesore for any first timer visiting Namma Bengaluru. The sight is all so familiar for residents though, with stinking piled up garbage, roads full of potholes, teeming with bumper to bumper traffic at all major roads and even on flyovers.

But then, it is perhaps the price being paid by the city for a very very fast pace of development, largely unplanned. The City was never envisioned to be having a population of crore plus with more and more people coming from all over India for their livelihoods. Subsequent governments have failed to address the woes consistently, and with each passing day, the problems of infrastructure have multiplied manifold.

A recent X post by Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has reignited the debate over Bengaluru’s ailing infrastructure. A visiting overseas business executive’s critical comments on the city’s roads and garbage came as an embarrassment to the Karnataka government and to the residents.

State ministers acknowledged the problems and said fixing them would require some time. They also called for collective cooperation to make the city better. Indeed, there’s no permanent or magic solution to the problems. Apart from the government and its numerous agencies tasked with the city’s infra upkeep, it is the citizens who need to wake up from their slumber and shake up their consciences by not throwing garbage at any empty plot, nor allowing others to do so.

Cleanliness they say begins at home. Likewise, carpooling, odd-even car usage, more public mode of transport usage and much more improved last mile public transport connectivity, are some remedies which need immediate attention to address some woes plaguing Bengaluru.

The state government has come under criticism over the poor state of roads and traffic issues in the city on numerous occasions earlier too, with an international logistics major thinking about shifting out from the clogged ORR sector to Hyderabad. In reality, Bengaluru is the fourth biggest technology cluster in the world and has grown at the rate of 10.5 per cent last year.

In task forces set up by various governments over the years, eminent entrepreneurs and indus trialists like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Mohandas Pai and others have always been a part, having contributed to creating an ecosystem in Bengaluru. For Bengaluru, the government has allotted Rs 1,000 crore to fill potholes.

The work is on, and it will take some time. But then, Namma Bengaluru is not alone, major global cities like London and San Francisco among others, too are facing traffic woes. Everyone’s contribution and cooperation is required to improve the city, no government can alone do it .