Civic

Walk down almost any street in Bengaluru, and you will spot them: missing slabs, wide gaps, and wooden planks covering openings. Uncovered stormwater drains have become a safety hazard across the city, creating serious obstacles and putting residents at risk of injury or death. Experts flag bad engineering design, poor monitoring, inadequate funding, and lax enforcement of liability rules as the major reasons for this public safety crisis. In Sanchar Nagar, Thanisandra, contractors dug up a stretch of at least 150 metres for stormwater drain works. A few weeks ago, a resident slipped and fell into the trench, getting badly…

Residents of Sancharnagar-MCECHS Layout in Ashwath Nagar, Thanisandra, are facing a prolonged civic crisis. What was once a well-regarded neighbourhood has now turned into a hazardous zone of dug‑up roads and broken footpaths. Exposed iron rods and makeshift wooden planks serving as temporary walkways pose constant danger to residents.  The same roads have been repeatedly dug up by multiple agencies. These include gas pipeline contractors, Cauvery water project teams, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM), and most recently, drainage and sewage contractors. The situation has persisted for months leading up to a year…

Businesses in Ramtekdi Industrial Estate are expected to manufacture, employ and attract customers, but the basic infrastructure around them tells another story.  The industrial estate in Hadapsar is home to small and medium manufacturing units, including businesses supplying Indian companies and exporting overseas. For our unit on Lane 1, getting to work means navigating a road broken into deep craters that fill with stagnant water during the monsoon season. Trucks carrying goods, workers on two-wheelers and visitors to the factory, all have to negotiate the same stretch. The state of the approach has become a problem for the business itself.…

Bengaluru has been without elected corporators for over six years. While the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) replaced the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) formally last year on September 2nd, elections to the new GBA have been stalled. Citing logistical challenges from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), authorities received a Supreme Court extension to hold elections by December 31st. The restructured GBA, expanding from 198 wards to five corporations across 369 wards, faces continuing gaps in solving various ward-level issues — such as solid waste management and traffic problems, poor execution of civic works and funding issues. People believe the…

For homemaker Rani, alternate evenings are dedicated to a few rounds at the 2,456 sq m Sharma Park in Chennai's T Nagar, playfully chasing her two granddaughters across the sanded area. But there are a few things she is worried about. “It’s hot throughout the year at the park. It has unwatered, withering plants, and this area is often prone to rowdyism,” Rani says, pointing to strewn water bottles and food packets behind some benches. However, as she spends all day sweating in her kitchen, these few hours in the open air are immensely valuable. ​In an earlier article, we…

A flower-seller weaving mozhams of jasmine, men reading newspapers, and cackling children playing games — these are common sights across city parks. As Chennai saw temperatures cross 40°C this May, seekers of shade, couples stealing time together, and informal workers turned to parks for solace.​ Parks and open spaces are crucial for residents in congested areas, many of whom live without air conditioning. But open spaces in Chennai are shrinking. The Urban Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines mandate 10 to 12 sq. m of open space per person, yet the Chennai Metropolitan Area has roughly just 0.65…

“Ae Dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, Jara hatke, jara bachke, ye hai Bombay meri jaan!”  This song from the 1956 hit movie C.I.D has become most Mumbaikars’ anthem since the monsoon has started—replace the words “kahin building, kahin trame” with open manholes and falling trees. Residents have seen mayhem and mishaps due to lashing rains in the city. Within the first six days of July, the Colaba and Santacruz observatories have recorded 823.4 mm and 898.4 mm of rainfall, respectively. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had initially issued an orange alert on July 3, which was changed to a red alert…

There was a time when Harrington Road was exactly what it was meant to be: a quiet, tree-lined residential avenue, one of Chennai’s older and more established neighbourhood corridors. Families chose to live here because it offered something increasingly rare — space, calm, and a sense of community. Today, that same road tells a very different story. Along an approximately 800-metre stretch now stand eight schools, where there used to be three — three hospitals, three auditoriums, eateries and commercial outlets. Individually, each serves an important purpose. Collectively, however, they have created a level of activity that the road and…

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot/ With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot. These words of the Joni Mitchell classic Big Yellow Taxi filled a corner of Pushpa Narsee Park in Juhu on a bright Sunday morning in March. Though the song was released in 1970, the words resonate in 2026, especially for this park. There have been several attempts to convert Pushpa Narsee Park into a parking lot, only foiled by the vigilance of the locals, says Anca Florescu Abraham, co-founder of Love Your Parks Mumbai (LYPMumbai). This initiative advocates for the…

The Straight-cut Flood Escape Channel project at Uthandi in the southern part of Chennai along East Coast Road was conceived by the Water Resources Department (WRD) as a flood mitigation measure, with a budget of ₹91 crores. The plan proposes a cut-and-cover drain through the VGP Layout in Uthandi, to connect the Buckingham Canal to the Bay of Bengal. The drain is supposedly meant to divert excess floodwater in Buckingham Canal during heavy rains, when areas around the Pallikaranai marsh and Okkiyam Madavu face flooding.  Work on the project started immediately after its inauguration in August 2025. However, residents of…