Wrong street, wrong number

Address-hunting is a nightmarish experience in the city. Unscientific numbering of houses and streets has left a maze so chaotic that a first-time visitor to an area is completely at a loss. Why not use technology to solve this problem?

Haphazard, random and insanely chaotic, house and street numbering across Bengaluru have taken a deep, disorderly dive. Address-hunting is the new nightmare, as the city’s bizarre, unregulated sprawl steamrolls that crying need for an organised, grid-like array of living spaces.

In hundreds of revenue layouts across town, houses and streets are identified by sheer luck. The numbering system defies order and logic. Living quarters with multiple numbers, old and new, streets without signboards, areas whose official name nobody knows! If this is not a recipe for chaos, what is?

The malaise runs deep. Decades ago, a stranger’s foray into a Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) layout was a breeze. He/she would simply look up a house from a map displayed right at the layout entry. Identifying the destination from a grid with neatly decked mains and cross roads would just be a walk away.

Illegible signboards

But today, the signboards are in a royal mess. The once legible markings have withered away with no attempt to repaint them. Fallen concrete slabs that once stood as milestones are everywhere. Those still standing are masked by posters, big and small.

Acknowledging the problem, a few BBMP corporators have erected elevated signboards for roads in some wards. This does make a difference, although a city-wide uniform pattern and structure is missing.

Can technology solve the problem? Ola and Uber have shown the way by helping drivers spot pick-up and destination points with ease through GPS coordinates. Why can’t house, shop or office numbering replicate this system instead of old, ineffective methods?

Smart city project

The Smart City Mission project could offer the solution. If Bengaluru is included under this project, the state government has proposed a unique digital numbering system that relies on the geo-spatial location of each house.

Simply put, the system will work like an Aadhaar number to pinpoint a residential or commercial location. Every address in the city will be assigned an eight digit ‘standardised digital address number.’ This alpha numeric code will be included in a central database.

The data will be synced with the geographical details maintained by BBMP or BDA. Once the system goes live, any house, office, school or commercial establishment will be automatically tagged on the GPS. The location could be traced on a Google Map accessible from a smartphone, tablet or any other GPS device.

Surveying properties

Twenty-five lakh houses in the city are expected to surveyed and included if this system goes live. But this depends a lot on Bengaluru’s inclusion in the Smart City’s scheme of things. Every house and street will be allotted numbers in the system that could be cloud-based. Satellite imagery will be integrated.

All these bank on an assumption that Bengaluru might just find itself in the Smart Cities list. But why wait for it? As civic evangelist, V Ravichander puts it, the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of properties are already available in the BDA master plan. Give each house a unique number and get on with the project, is his suggestion.

The geo-referenced ID could be linked to property ID for BBMP tax payment, Bescom or Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) number. By this system, Ravichander explains, the problem of multiple numbering for the same property could be permanently solved.

“A lot of houses have old and new numbers. This is because the system itself evolved historically. You cannot take BBMP ward as a reference since that too is dynamic. A geo-reference will not change. The latitude and longitude positions will remain the same.”

Street-naming and house-numbering are apparently not issues that dominate the government's list of priorities. But citizens are convinced that the time and effort wasted on hunting down an address in a labyrinthine maze of poorly ordered layouts warrants greater attention.

Rising costs

On the rise are expenses for courier services in routing and rerouting packages. Important printed documents and goods sent through India Post are getting lost like never before. Often house numbers are duplicated on alternate streets, triggering confusion and wrong deliveries.

Ignoring the need for house and street number clarity has a dangerous side. In times of emergency, fire, ambulance and medical services would find it very tough to reach the correct address quickly. Any loss of time could prove fatal.