Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said contractors had been given a final deadline to fill an estimated 8,000 potholes before November at a cost of ₹750 crore.
Published Sep 27, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 27, 2025 | 8:00 AM
A potholed street in Bengaluru. (File photo)
Synopsis: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has announced that ₹750 crore has been allocated to fix Bengaluru’s potholes, but experts says the actual cost of repairs should be significantly lower, noting that resurfacing with quality materials should cost between ₹30 lakh and ₹50 lakh per kilometre, estimating that even topping all 1,600 km of the city’s arterial roads would not exceed ₹800 crore.
Bengaluru’s crumbling road infrastructure has once again come under sharp focus after monsoon rains left the city dotted with waterlogged potholes, turning roads into hazardous obstacles for commuters.
Amid mounting public criticism and a viral social media post by a technology CEO announcing he would move his company out of the city due to poor road conditions on the Outer Ring Road, the state government has moved into damage-control mode.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is said to have pulled up officials for failing to complete road repair works before the rains, warning of action against those who do not improve conditions within a month. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also the minister in charge of the district, said contractors had been given a final deadline to fill an estimated 8,000 potholes before November.
“We are committed to fix the pothole issue in Bengaluru. The CM has released a grant of ₹750 crore for this purpose,” Shivakumar said in a post on X.
However, experts say that the work should cost far less than the amount cited by the Deputy Chief Minister.
Urban expert RK Misra noted that the same work a few years ago cost around ₹30 lakh per kilometre.
“This ₹750 crores for pothole filling does not seem right, there needs to be a clarification. It used to be around ₹30 lakh a couple of years before. I do not think it has gone up that much. They use 20 mm thickness instead of 30 mm which is why the road goes away,” he told South First.
“It hardly costs ₹50 lakh for the top layer for 1 km two-lane urban road using 20 mm or 30 mm Bituminous Concrete (BC). Without specifying the quality, the length, and the location, and just in the name of potholes, I am very sceptical. In fact, they can add this amount to the ₹694 crore that was sanctioned earlier.”
Bengaluru has around 1,600 km of major arterial and sub-arterial roads, most of which are two-lane and above, Misra explained. If all those roads are topped at 30 mm of asphalt at ₹30 lakh, the total cost would be ₹480 crore.
“Even if it is ₹50 lakh at 30 mm for 1,600 km of roads in the city, it comes up to ₹800 crore in total. ₹750 crore you can do one layer of 30 mm of top-notch BC with MRPL VG 30. This is the specification. We are using very poor and spurious quality,” he said.
A chief engineer with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) countered that costs depend on several factors.
“The cost for constructing a new road in Bengaluru varies between ₹1 crore and ₹1.5 crore depending on the location and other factors,” the official said.
Misra linked the prevalence of potholes on Bengaluru’s main roads to poor material quality and thin layers.
He added that contractors could alternatively use Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB), an asphalt binder enhanced with polymers for improved performance.
“The reasons why so many potholes are there on major roads in the city is due to the use of 20 mm BC and the other is the inferior quality of bitumen. I have raised it with the Chief Secretary and also at the meeting we had the other day.”
He alleged that contractors often buy substandard, rejected bituminous concrete.
“The good quality is around ₹50,000 per metric tonne. Because nobody checks, they will only check the temperature here. They will not check the other parameters. They do not do the quality control of the type as well as from where it is sourced.”
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
