Bengaluru: West, North & South corporations push to develop & maintain road, parks, lights

Three more of Bengaluru’s five municipal corporations presented their budgets, allocating a significant chunk of resources for maintaining roads, parks and streetlights.

Bengaluru: Three more of Bengaluru’s five municipal corporations presented their budgets for 2026-27 on Saturday, allocating a significant chunk of their own resources for maintaining roads, parks and streetlights. They proposed using government grants for infrastructure development. 

The Bengaluru West City Corporation (BWCC) — the most populous of all five municipal bodies in the city — has projected a total budgetary outlay of Rs 4,733 crore, surpassing the North Corporation (Rs 4,341.2 crore) and the East Corporation (Rs 3,890 crore).

Curiously, the West Corporation had struggled to pay staff salaries just months after its formation last year.

The West Corporation earmarked about 60% of the total outlay for infrastructure projects, mostly roadworks. It will also spend a substantial chunk of Rs 635 crore on Sugama Sanchara — Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s pet project — to build new roads along stormwater drain buffer zones and elevated corridors.

To keep the MLAs in good humour, the corporation has earmarked small grants for different projects in all assembly segments.

The North Corporation’s budget attempted to balance infrastructure development and welfare, allocating funds for health, education and climate action initiatives. On the infrastructure front, it plans to widen four roads for Rs 25 crore and improve footpaths.

The South Corporation allocated Rs 433 crore for large-scale upgrades of arterial and sub-arterial roads. It also proposed to redevelop Bannerghatta Road, from Dairy Circle to NICE Road.

As per budget documents, the East, South and North corporations performed well in raising revenue through property tax, which also reduces their dependence on government support.

Notably, the property tax revenue projected by the West, East and Central corporations for the new fiscal year is more than double the revenue generated in the last six months of 2025-26. This indicates overestimation.

Given that the civic bodies are expected to self-sustain, all five corporations have widened their revenue sources through policies such as regularisation of ‘B’ khata properties, premium FAR and advertisement fees.

They also hope to raise additional revenue by regularising up to 15% of deviations in building construction and plan approvals for single plots among other measures.

Over the last two days, all five corporations presented maiden budgets with a total outlay of Rs 20,217 crore. They share a part of the pie with Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd (BSWML) for handling waste and Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Ltd (B-SMILE) for undertaking large-ticket infrastructure projects.

What was common in all five budgets is the allocation of Rs 2.25 crore each for all 369 wards, a standard the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) followed in successive budgets. These funds — close to Rs 1,000 crore — are generally spent on minor works such as de-silting drains and fixing footpath slabs and their execution is neither taken seriously nor documented well.

Notably, the five budgets have set aside close to Rs 290 crore for the discretionary use of the Bengaluru in-charge minister.

More importantly, the finances of erstwhile BBMP were not in good condition before it was divided into five civic bodies. Owing to lack of funds and over expenditure, there is a two-year delay in clearing bills, leading to fake billing.