Bengaluru needs Rs 93.17 cr for walkable footpaths, shows audit

Sensing Local, an urban living lab, has estimated through a strategic walkability audit that it would take Rs 93.17 crore to develop footpaths and junctions in 15 wards.

The organisation is currently in talks with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to devise plans on how a budget could be mobilised for the task.

Conducted as part of the Walkable Bengaluru initiative, the audit involved over 300 volunteers who covered 315 kilometres of footpaths and 174 junctions in 19 wards between March and May 2023. Tabulated data for 15 wards is available on their website’s dashboard.

Mapped and collated by community volunteers in each of the wards, the data from the audit identified 20 issues under five categories. These include footpath quality, encroachment, and unsafe areas under the category of 'footpath'. It highlighted seven issues under two categories for junctions.  

“We built an automated issue-solution matrix, which helped us match issues to solutions and then estimate the budgets for the development of footpaths and junctions according to the schedule of rates set by the BBMP,” said Sobia Rafiq, co-founder, Sensing Local.

The audit has estimated that Rs 84.02 crore will be needed for footpath development, including Rs 63.11 crore to repair street infrastructure and Rs 15 crore to build accessible infrastructure.

As for junctions, it has estimated at least Rs 9.15 crore to improve junctions, at least 50% of which needs to be spent on traffic management at critical junctions in these 15 wards.  

Volunteers also identified priority walking networks in each ward — the most important roads in terms of connectivity, traffic density, and key destinations. These amounted to 32 per cent of the total road network in inner wards and 19 per cent in outer wards. Interestingly, this indicates that road networks in the city’s inner wards are more walkable.

If the authorities implement solutions suggested in these priority networks in the next five years, they will solve a large number of walkability issues, Sobia noted.

The organisation is holding talks with the BBMP to implement the network approach by strategically identifying roads and allocating funds.