Make it a walkable city

The tragic deaths of 23-year-old Soundarya and her 9-month-old child in November are a heartbreaking incident and should be unacceptable in 21st-century Bengaluru. The government must be held accountable—in a tangible way for negligence—for the electrocution incident on a footpath. Let us be clear that this was indeed a “man-made error,” literally and figuratively, given that men predominantly hold the positions of political and executive power in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru, known for its fair weather all year and urban innovations like Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Roads Execution) and creating arguably India’s longest stretch of walkable roads in a city centre, needs to have zero tolerance for pedestrian fatalities of any kind. Yet, Bengaluru witnessed 248 pedestrian deaths and 819 pedestrian injuries in 2022, an average of three per day and the second highest in India.

In this particular instance, a live wire of the BESCOM was lying unattended on the road. Power lines, instead of lying on the road, should be lying beneath it in HDPE/DWC/RCC pipes with RCC chambers at every alternate property. As per Tender SURE standards, naked cables are only allowed in the chambers for individual property connections. This greatly reduces the possibility of electrocution. Being buried under the earth also offers natural earthing and protection, which is further reinforced with HDPE/DWC ducting for both high-tension and low-tension (HT and LT) cables. There are also global standards for organising power cables over the ground if cities find the costs of underground ducting prohibitive.

This is frankly not just a question of power lines alone. Bengalurueans deserve 14,000 km of walkable footpaths, i.e., covering every street in every neighbourhood. There has to be accountability for street construction and maintenance from a public safety perspective, whether it is tripping, falling into drains due to broken or missing cover slabs, or fatalities due to potholes or naked power cables. The core issue is that roads and public spaces in Bengaluru are treated as civil engineering projects. We need roads and public spaces to be designed, not just built, because it is urban design that will make our roads and public spaces centric rather than concrete-centric. We also need a greater number of citizen women planners, designers, and engineers to design and build our cities for them to be equitable and empathetic.

Bengaluru has the benefit of Tender SURE, a home-grown urban design standard. Its key features include continuous and even footpaths, uniform lane widths, safe intersections, and organised underground utilities under footpaths in ducts, which prevent frequent road-cutting. To the credit of successive chief ministers and governments of Karnataka and administrations of the BBMP, 60 km of Tender SURE roads (albeit with some dilution) have been implemented in the CBD (central business district), of which 30 km were under the Smart Cities Mission.

The engineers of the BBMP have been inspired enough to separately replicate Tender SURE footpath designs on several roads in the city. Tender SURE is also being implemented in Hubballi-Dharwad, with 11.5 km completed and 12 km in progress. Tender SURE designs are now being adapted and scaled across 20 cities in five states in India. In a recent monitoring and evaluation study conducted on the completed Tender SURE roads by Jana USP, we found walkability on Tender SURE roads to be 150% higher than control roads, i.e., non-Tender SURE roads.

Bengaluru would therefore benefit from adapting Tender SURE design guidelines to all categories of roads, innovating on overhead cabling, creating a modular approach with respect to separate standards for each of the eight components of public infrastructure passing through roads (power, water, sewerage, drain, gas, telecom, streetlighting, traffic surveillance), and most importantly, notifying design, implementation, and maintenance guidelines as mandatory for all roads.

The absence of mandatory design, implementation, and maintenance standards is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have, given that citizens are tragically paying with their lives for the absence of such guidelines and accountability for them. Once guidelines are notified, every kilometre of road and footpath in Bengaluru needs to have a responsible engineer tagged against the same, with radical transparency in road works and budgets.

A walkable Bengaluru will yield proven benefits of better health and wellness, improved access to public transport, economic and academic opportunities, particularly for women and the urban poor, reduced traffic congestion, improved air quality, a more equitable society, and a vibrant economy. It will also prevent avoidable man-made tragedies.

 It will help if the Tender SURE roads and footpaths follow the standards mentioned below: 

Design

Continuous and evenly paved—not broken at entry exits, protected with bollards or landscapes from vehicular traffic

Footpath to be raised above the travel lane by 150mm and sloped towards the drain.

Designated crossings at midblock (every 200 m) and intersections. Pelican crossings to be provided at busy junctions and high-traffic areas. Ramps with a 1:20 slope to be provided for universal accessibility at crossings.

Footpath to be finished with paver blocks or tiles with proper subgrade to prevent sinking due to rats burrowing and shifting of soil underground.

Tactile pavers to be provided as per harmonious guidelines.

Well-lit footpaths with no dark patches—an 8-metre pole every 24 metres, a 6-metre pole every 18 metres, or a 3-metre pole every 10 metres.

Inclusion of landscape, public art, signage and wayfinding, street furniture, and designated vending for a vibrant public realm.

Organised and designated spaces for amenities such as power transformers, bus stops, dustbins, and on-street parking—to ensure unhindered and safe movement of pedestrians.

Organised underground utilities—power and telecom in HDPE/DWC ducts with chambers at every alternate property for individual property connections and maintenance.

If over-the-ground power cabling has to be provided, safety precautions and standards are to be followed to prevent loss of life, especially during heavy rains.

Implementation

 Standards for typical contract agreements and tender documents

A single overarching contract to prevent dilution, in which a selected contractor can subcontract, but there is one person accountable and responsible.

Standards for detailed project reports, bills of quantities, andgood-for-construction drawings

Standards for project sequencing

Standards for quality check and design compliance check

Maintenance

Contractor to have an operations and maintenance clause of 3-5 years for all components of the road

Maintenance manuals to increase longevity of roads

Safety standards

Repair standards for all components of the road

(The writer is director-urban design, Jana Urban Space)