Bengaluru Revives Road History Project to Track Rs 5,000 Crore Expenditure

The digital GIS-based 'Road History Project' has resurfaced in Bengaluru to track road works, costs, and prevent duplicate billing across the city. The initiative gained renewed focus after Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda warned Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials and engineers against the 'Hale Kallu, Hosa Billu' (old stone, new bill) practice during pothole repairs.

The project, which maps more than 13,000 kilometres of roads, was originally conceived during the 2014–15 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget. It was designed to assign a permanent identification number to every road and record all related information to bring transparency to city developmental works.

Former BBMP Taxation and Finance Committee Chairman Manjunath Raju, who conceptualised the initiative, explained that the platform was designed on the same principle as the Property Identification (PID) number, acting as an 'Aadhaar for roads.' Under the project, every road, drain, underground cable, and associated civic infrastructure was digitally mapped to create a comprehensive civic asset database.

According to Raju, this digital monitoring would help track illegal road cutting by optical fibre cable (OFC) companies and unauthorised digging by parastatals like the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom). Currently, uncoordinated digging results in poor quality roads and a loss of public money.

The revival of the project comes amid questions over the expenditure of more than Rs 5,000 crore on Bengaluru roads. Civic activist and Bengaluru Praja Vedike founder-member NS Mukunda noted that the project was never fully implemented. He stated that unscrupulous engineers and contractors have allegedly raised multiple overlapping bills for asphalting the same stretches, including Shantaveri Gopala Gowda Road.

Mukunda added that implementing the Road History Project in letter and spirit would ensure accountability by recording details of road asphalting, fund allocations, reported potholes, and repairs, leaving no room for corruption.