Five city corporations: Concerns over maintenance of key roads forming boundaries between multiple corporations

Sampige Road is currently under two Assembly constituencies and two wards, leading to jurisdictional issues. The saving grace till now was that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was in charge of the maintenance of the road.

However, as per the draft issued by BBMP for the boundaries of five city corporations, the road will form the boundary between Central and West corporations, which means it will be under two completely different civic administrations, which will only accentuate the chaos, a resident said. 

As five corporations have been carved out of the existing civic limits and the Brand Bengaluru Committee has adopted “the roads separating the multiple corporations to be as wide as possible” as one of the criteria for splitting the civic limits into five corporations, several key roads have become the boundaries of these corporations.

Jayamahal Road, Palace Road, New BEL Road, K.R. Road, Sarjapur Road, Banaswadi Main Road, Ittamadu Main Road, Chikkalasandra Main Road are just some of the roads that will be boundaries between corporations, apart from several stretches of key arterial roads like Bannerghatta Main Road, Kanakapura Main Road, Ballari Road, Outer Ring Road also acting as boundaries between multiple corporations. 

Citizens and activists have raised concerns that this is expected to cause confusion on the ground over the maintenance and upkeep of these key stretches of roads.

“There have been many road stretches falling in two Assembly constituencies in the city, like the 100 ft. road in Indiranagar, which was already causing confusion. But a road falling in two corporations is even worse. But this is inevitable in a multiple corporation set up and we need to think out of the box to solve this issue,” a senior civic official said. 

V. Ravichandar, a member of the Brand Bengaluru Committee, which drafted the five corporation boundaries, suggested that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited (B-SMILE), which will be tasked with all pan city infrastructure projects, should also have a maintenance wing and the agency should be tasked with all major roads that form the borders of these multiple corporations to prevent any jurisdictional issues over maintenance and upkeep of these key roads.