BENGALURU: Approximately Rs 5,500 crore has been spent on city roads in the past three years, but there’s only 2% of roads to show for it while the rest are potholes, said Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, while urging new Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda to publish a white paper on the spending over potholes.
The MP said he has placed two “non-negotiable” demands before the minister -- publication of a white paper within 30 days detailing expenditure incurred on road repairs over the last three years and the launch of a live infrastructure dashboard within 60 days, providing details of project timelines, budgets and contractors before any further allocation for road works.
In a letter dated June 22 to the minister, the MP expressed “deep concern and anguish” over the city’s deteriorating road conditions, stating that despite repeated allocations running into thousands of crores, Bengaluru continues to grapple with potholes and poor road maintenance.
“Known globally as a technology hub, Bengaluru has unfortunately also earned the tag of a ‘pothole city’”, Surya wrote, adding that with the monsoon approaching, potholes have become a daily hazard for pedestrians and two-wheeler riders.
Surya pointed out that the state government had set a deadline in October 2025 for the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to make the city pothole-free. However, with the deadline having lapsed, the government has announced a fresh timeline of eight months along with an additional allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for road repairs.
According to the MP, various allocations for pothole filling and road works have been announced in recent years, including Rs 27 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 12.25 crore in 2024-25 for pothole repairs, Rs 750 crore in September 2025 to address the city’s “perennial pothole problem”, Rs 2,200 crore in October 2025 for road repair and construction under the “pothole-free Bengaluru” initiative and Rs 265 crore in December 2025 for pothole repairs, during which over 30,000 potholes were reportedly filled.
Surya also cited allocations of Rs 695 crore for black-topping 350 km of roads, Rs 1,241 crore for road relaying, drains, kerbs and footpaths and Rs 900 crore for resurfacing 650 km of ward roads. He noted that cumulative expenditure on roads had reached Rs 5,500 crore by the end of 2025.
Stating that “the issue before us is not a lack of funds, but a lack of accountability”, the MP urged the government to place detailed information in the public domain through a dashboard.
Among the measures sought are a road-wise dashboard containing details of works executed, contractors, expenditure and defect liability periods; a list of contractors penalised or blacklisted for poor-quality work; data on roads requiring repeated repairs within 12 months; a distinction between capital infrastructure works and temporary patch repairs; independent third-party quality audits; and a detailed utilisation plan for the latest road repair allocation.