Bengaluru's IT professionals turn road masons to fill potholes as authorities won't

Time of India

a day ago

Bengaluru: While the rest of Bengaluru waved flags and listened to speeches on Independence Day, a group of residents at Gunjur, in the backyard of the city's tech corridor, picked up shovels.
Their mission: To fill the potholes that the civic agency wouldn't and the govt didn't care about!
Frustrated by years of civic apathy, over 25 young working professionals got on the ground to scoop gravel with their bare hands to repair the Gunjur–Doddakannelli road. Many of those who donned the role of masons and road repairers were IT engineers who fuel Bengaluru's global reputation. "When the daily commute becomes back-breaking for us and our kids, we are left with no option but to act, as those in power have turned a blind eye to the crumbling road infrastructure," said a resident of an apartment complex flanking the road.
Holding plastic sacks and wearing masks, the youngsters picked up gravel dumped by the roadside for a long time and patched the potholes and craters on the stretch. Videos of them at work, some raising slogans of Inquilab Zindabad and Vande Mataram, spread widely on social media after Namma Balagere (@BalagereConnect) posted them on X. Many slammed the govt for its failure and lauded the citizens.
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"This should have been the way how the whole of Bengaluru celebrated Independence Day," a social media user said.
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Harsh Kumar, who mobilised the residents of his apartment complex for the task, said: "This is what a citizen movement looks like. Commuters encouraged us, some even parked their cars and joined in. We had no option left after complaining for over a year."
The volunteers have now vowed to repeat the effort on Sept 5 and Oct 2.
The material used for filling had actually been left by the roadside for months, Kumar said. "But the 100m stretch next to Gunjur club was not always like this.
The road was so good that children used to skate on it," he recounted and added: "It deteriorated to this extent in just two years."
Another resident of an apartment complex nearby said they had been complaining to authorities for over a year. "The officials say they will get it done once they get the requisite funds. This is not an isolated case, but the issue is with every road in the Varthur ward," he added. "In the past, even when there were funds, the quality of work was poor," he said, questioning the substandard work.
Netizens tagged PM Modi and DyCM DK Shivakumar and appealed to them to provide basic infrastructure in the tech corridor.
When contacted, a local BBMP official said: "We have undertaken pothole filling work at Panathur, Balagere Road near Bhoganahalli Junction and adjoining areas. We will do it in other areas too shortly."
BBMP also tweeted photographs of pothole-filling work in the area as a face-saving measure.
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INSET
What netizens said
-Deepak K Jha posted a table showing BBMP's zone-wise property tax collection data, with Mahadevapura at the top with Rs 1310.6 crore collected in 2024-25. "Tax is mandatory, providing infrastructure is optional," Jha wrote alongside the table.
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Tax like England, service like Somalia. Shame on politicians and BBMP officials
-Gaurav on X
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It's the same situation everywhere. The cost we citizens pay due to these freebies. We will head towards bankruptcy very soon
-Sandesh Pai
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This whole area is left to be rotten. MLA least bothered. They are winning without doing anything. Common people suffer daily
-Rahul
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