Why are Bengaluru's footpaths ill-maintained perennially?

Despite detailed guidelines and money for upkeep, the city’s footpaths remain broken, unsafe, and poorly maintained. There is some hope, but it’s not enough.

Bengaluru: At 8.30 am every morning on Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road, office-goers perform a deadly balancing act — not on the asphalt, but because there is no footpath left to walk on. In a city that calls itself India’s Silicon Valley, pedestrians now make up nearly 28% of all road deaths. In 2025 alone, over 218 pedestrians were killed on Bengaluru’s roads, many forced onto traffic-clogged streets by broken, parked-over, or simply missing pavements.

There are many types of footpaths in the city — some paved with cobblestones or interlocked tiles, especially where there are no stormwater drains or utilities beneath the surface, allowing water to percolate into the ground during rains. In Vijaynagar, one such footpath was being replaced with concrete slabs. In many areas, stone slabs covering drains on footpaths are replaced with sub-standard concrete slabs that eventually break. 

An unwalkable footpath at Minsk Square.

No one really knows why such changes happen. There is no lack of standards for footpath design. What is lacking is the mandate and willpower to follow the guidelines.

Erstwhile BBMP, with help from the WRI-India developed the guidebook ‘Namma Raste Kaipidi’, which outlines all stages of street design, including footpaths, primarily in accordance with Indian Road Congress guidelines. WRI-India has worked with the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to conduct capacity-building workshops for engineers to help them understand the guidelines and their on-the-ground applications. Rajeev Malagi, Programme Manager with the Urban Development and Accessibility team at WRI-India, says engineers have become increasingly attentive to these guidelines and are working to incorporate them consistently.

Urban Design Cells as a solution

Yet, why are the results not visible? “When projects are tendered, detailed designs go directly to contractors. Even if engineers and designers provide good designs, contractors may lack familiarity with these standards and could revert to older practices. Implementation errors include missing ramps, absent checkpoints, and improperly spaced bollards that allow two-wheelers onto footpaths. GBA also has limited engineering capacity for continuous on-site monitoring. Translating high-quality designs into on-ground implementation is a major challenge,” he explains a major bottleneck.

A neglected footpath in Bangarappanagar.

As a solution, Urban Design Cells were created in each corporation. Each cell has hired an urban designer, an urban planner, and a transport planner. “Working with engineers, these professionals help develop high-quality proposals and assist project management,” explains Malagi. Engineers typically visited project sites only once every 15 days, by which time contractors would have completed substantial portions of the work. Now, Urban Design Cell staff conduct site visits every two to three days for projects such as Suraksha Junctions, and identify and correct small implementation errors early, says Malagi.

An unsafe footpath near Cottonpet.

Sunil Kumar Pommala, Bengaluru North City Corporation Commissioner, says that members of the Cell effectively become technical assistants to the commissioners across all functions, including ground monitoring. “That is their mandate in all corporations — and we’ll make the best use of them,” he explains.

Prescriptions not followed

‘Namma Rasthe’ illustrated manual prescribes drainage and footpath upkeep, as well as maintenance of street furniture, signage, and pedestrian zones. However, there is no citywide, formalised system where contractors are paid primarily on measurable pedestrian outcomes such as walkability, obstruction-free compliance, uptime/service levels, accessibility compliance, defect response time, pavement quality, etc.

A sunken pavement near Lokayukta Office.

The city relies on tender contracts, annual maintenance contracts (AMCs), zone/corridor contractors, and sweeping and sanitation O&M contracts to maintain footpaths, yet there is no metric to evaluate the quality of “upkeep”.

Third-party audits, contractor performance ratings, quarterly progress reports, etc., are among the prescribed measures to ensure transparency, but they do not exist on the ground for footpaths.

Dead tree trunks are a big problem on footpaths. Some contractors just fill the footpath with mud and cement, then place tiles or concrete blocks over them, without really removing the dead trunk and the roots spread beneath the ground. This organic matter decays underground and eventually collapses, pulling down whatever is above it, including footpath tiles, resulting in uneven footpaths or broken slabs.

An uneven footpath near Vidhana Soudha, Dr Ambedkar Road.  

A contractor told DH that many times, footpaths with dead tree trunks are already filled, and contractors just do the mandated work of laying the tiles or concrete blocks. In some cases, removing a dead trunk needs extra machinery and work, and most do not do it.

The unending silt loop

Citizens complain that contractors de-silt the drains but do not close the drain covers, which essentially double up as footpaths. Sometimes the silt is left on the roadside, and it returns to the drain with the next rain.

Sunilkumar agrees that this is the reality in many areas. “During desilting, the contractor is supposed to open one slab, clear the drain, close it, and clear the silt from the road — not dump it on the road. These maintenance activities are simply not happening. There’s no transparency in this work,” he says.

There is also another issue. “Contractors do not have high-tech desilting vehicles — the equipment that prevents leakage onto the road. They should be lifting silt directly into the vehicle and transporting it immediately. Instead, they dump it on the road to dry, and that’s when damage happens.”

However, this can be fixed with the right maintenance contracts. “A contractor’s responsibility typically ends once a footpath is implemented. Maintenance requires a separate contract extension. Although city budgets sometimes allocate funds for footpath maintenance, the upgradation of contractual gaps remains a loophole. Ideally, contractors who implement projects well should have their contracts extended by six months to a year to cover annual desilting and restoration,” says Malagi.

Fixing accountability

There is no lack of guidelines on how a footpath should be designed. TenderSURE, design, Pune’s Complete Street design, IRC guidelines and many others advocate for good footpaths that are accessible to all. Bollards to stop two-wheelers, wheelchair-friendly slopes, predefined heights, etc., are part of a good footpath design, but the city often sees broken footpaths.

“Unless street design standards are institutionalised through legislation or statutory frameworks, there is very little accountability for implementation. Cities may adopt guidelines in principle, but there is no binding requirement to consistently follow them on the ground,” says Pravalika Sarvadevabhatla, Associate Manager, Jana Urban Space, a subsidiary of Janaagraha, the Bengaluru-based NGO that designed TenderSURE design for footpaths.

As a solution, she refers to the Active Mobility Bill, which has not yet been passed. “Once enacted, it will be a game-changer. It establishes that every pedestrian has an equal right to the road, and it specifies how an urban footpath must be designed. It is a law, not a guideline, hence compliance will be mandatory. Karnataka has the chance to be the first state in India to pass it.”

Commitment to better footpaths

Malagi says that during the recent Budget-to-Action workshops, both North and West Corporations expressed strong interest in developing footpath networks. North has committed to 1,000 kilometres of walkable footpaths, and West to around 500 kilometres in this year’s budget.

North Corporation is the only one that has earmarked INR 25 lakh per ward for footpath improvements. Other corporations do not mention any dedicated budget, but it does not mean there is no money. The 2025-26 budget has allocated Rs 2.25 crore across all 369 wards in all corporations. This amounts to Rs 1,000 crore, but is generally spent on small works such as de-silting drains and fixing footpath slabs. The political will to keep footpaths safe and walkable for all is what every corporation needs.