- The citizens of Bengaluru must be feeling terribly frustrated, cynical, angry, and out of wits, knowing how innocent lives are lost courtesy of the despicable roads that have become one of the most visible eyesores here. While we rejoice in being a part of a city with several monikers like the Silicon Valley of India, the Garden City of India, the start-up capital of India, and the most happening city of India, the fact of the matter about Bengaluru is that our crying need for decent enough infrastructure befitting a renowned city is sorely lacking. The basic amenities like proper motorable roads, clean air, adequate potable water, decent enough law and order, and earnest governance/administration extending every possible support to citizens are sorely lacking. Period.
PC: The Pamphlet
- Agreed, Bengaluru has grown exponentially in the last few decades on the back of the information-technology boom that saw the graph of the city and the state soar to stratospheric heights. The successive governments ruling the state made concerted efforts to live up to the growth by ushering in much-needed infrastructural developments commensurate with the standards adopted across the world. Bengaluru not only attracts a huge pool of talented/skilled manpower from across the state but also from around the country and beyond. Little wonder, the city is home to several of the world’s leading Fortune 500 companies, thereby ensuring Bengaluru is counted among the most happening metros in the world. Is it enough, though?
PC: Frontline – The Hindu
- However, the pathetic condition of basic infrastructural development, with poor workmanship, lack of attention, half-hearted execution, shoddy materials, and a general lack of intent to ensure that some of the most basic amenities are provided for the use of citizens, has marred the city. These structural lacunae get accentuated during the pre-monsoon and monsoon rains, making the life of commuters extremely hazardous. The pothole-filled, crater-like roads, the dust, the waste, and the lack of lane discipline so widely prevalent in the city have rendered commuting an extremely challenging endeavour for all concerned. The civic agencies tasked with ensuring these basic issues have been repeatedly failing on several fronts to assure us of safe, commutable roads.
PC: The Times of India
- The sad outcome is to read about how innocent, promising, and life worth living for decades are lost due to pathetic road conditions. Every year the same sorry story repeats. And the familiar platitudes, promises, assurances, compensation, and strict implementation of measures to address the issues of amenities are bandied about as a matter of routine. In a knee-jerk reaction, what ensues subsequently is the same old enactment of the authorities assuring action on priority, but little substantive happening on the ground. We know the whole exercise, you see. When the heat and dust settle down, we are back to the routine while being appreciated for showing resilience. Why can’t we have safe, motorable roads? Is it too much to ask? None.
