Independence Day 2025: Bengaluru’s Struggle with Flooding, Traffic, and Unplanned Growth
As Bengaluru approaches Independence Day, the city faces significant challenges due to its transition from well-planned development to unregulated urban sprawl. This has led to issues such as flooding, traffic congestion, and infrastructure strain.
BengaluruUrban PlanningFloodingTraffic CongestionReal EstateReal Estate NewsAug 15, 2025
Urban experts note that post-independence planning largely focused on middle-class aspirations for individual plots and low-rise housing. Today, congested roads, recurring floods, and uncontrolled real estate growth highlight how inadequate planning has strained the city’s infrastructure.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Bengaluru’s limited expansion allowed it to manage growth, but the software boom of the 1990s changed the landscape. Rapid, unregulated development outpaced infrastructure, leaving the city struggling to keep up. With Independence Day approaching, experts reflect that decades after gaining political freedom, Bengaluru has yet to achieve freedom from the consequences of unplanned urban growth. They question whether the city has built on the foresight of its early planners or replaced that vision with systems that limit, rather than support, its growth.
Sarang Kulkarni, Managing Director of Descon Ventures, said that after Independence, large public sector companies such as ISRO, BEL, and HMT set up their establishments in Bengaluru. These had large campuses where people could both work and live. When the IT sector arrived, companies also created campuses, but this time, housing demand grew outside the workplace, and the need for transport increased. Previously, work and housing were part of the same campus.
With this shift, there was a requirement to create transport corridors, but the government neither had sufficient land parcels nor, more importantly, a master plan. As a result, roads began to appear haphazardly in response to demand. The only planned road network from that period that we see today is the Outer Ring Road; beyond that, most expansion was unplanned.
Sandeep Anirudhan, Convenor of the Coalition for Water Security, points out that, “From the 1960s till the 1980s, the city didn’t expand much, so we survived. But the software boom changed everything, unregulated growth took over, and we never built the infrastructure to support it,” he said. Anirudhan notes that “Pre-independence, we had stronger institutions that planned for the city to grow and thrive. Post-independence, especially in recent decades, we have allowed those systems to collapse. We’ve gone from building for abundance to manufacturing scarcity.”
In her book The Promise of the Metropolis, historian Janaki Nair observes that post-independence planning increasingly catered to middle-class aspirations for individual plots and low-rise houses. Citing a study, Nair wrote, “88 per cent of dwelling units were on the ground floor… Bangalore is still an individual space-oriented and low-rise city” (p. 131). The “ideal of a site” and a lingering “nostalgia for the bungalow and the compound” shaped the planning imagination, a far cry from the integrated, capacity-focused layouts of the Maharaja’s time.
Even the city’s expansion, Nair notes, defied its own Master Plan. “The one common denominator in the spread of the city was the haphazard growth of the land used in spite of the City Master Plan… attributed to the multiplicity of jurisdictions involved in city development, and the uncoordinated and individual decisions of private developers” (p. 131).
Nair’s book showed that public housing provision was limited; “the City Improvement Trust Board distributed about 64,656 sites between 1945 and 1976, and the BDA distributed about 63,062 sites between 1976 and 1988, and a total of 71,483 by 1991. The Karnataka Housing Board built 5506 houses in today’s north Bengaluru’s Yelahanka, and 15,000 on the outskirts. The Karnataka Slum Clearance Board had built 2125 houses up to 1989.” (p. 131)
Harini Nagendra, professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University, noted that Bengaluru’s history of water management dates back centuries. “Even during the Chola period, people had begun creating tanks and waterbodies in small pockets for irrigation and other needs,” she said. Over time, successive rulers, from Kempe Gowda to Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan, the Wodeyars, and later the British, expanded this network, constructing additional tanks as the population grew. This practice continued into the late 19th century, culminating in the creation of Sankey Tank in the 1890s.
Anirudhan points out that “Our ancestors built around 2,000 lakes, holding and recharging nearly 25 TMC of water into the aquifers, ensuring wells had ample water, when the city’s population was just a few lakhs. If we hadn't destroyed those lakes and wetlands, it would have been sufficient for even today’s 1.5 crore residents. They built for abundance. Now, we don’t even plan, let alone build; and the decisions we take are reductionist and destructive,” he said.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main challenges Bengaluru faces due to unplanned urban growth?
Bengaluru faces significant challenges such as flooding, traffic congestion, and infrastructure strain due to unplanned urban growth. The city's rapid expansion has outpaced the development of necessary infrastructure.
How did the software boom impact Bengaluru's urban development?
The software boom in the 1990s led to rapid, unregulated development in Bengaluru. This resulted in increased housing demand outside of industrial campuses, leading to more traffic and infrastructure stress.
What was the focus of post-independence planning in Bengaluru?
Post-independence planning in Bengaluru largely focused on middle-class aspirations for individual plots and low-rise housing, which contributed to the city's haphazard growth and lack of integrated urban planning.
What is the historical context of Bengaluru's water management?
Bengaluru's water management dates back centuries, with rulers like Kempe Gowda, Hyder Ali, and the Wodeyars constructing numerous lakes and waterbodies to meet the city's needs. This network was expanded into the late 19th century.
How has the destruction of lakes and wetlands affected Bengaluru?
The destruction of lakes and wetlands has significantly impacted Bengaluru's water management. These waterbodies were crucial for recharging aquifers and ensuring a steady water supply, which is now insufficient for the city's growing population.
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