Previous efforts to ease congestion have seen the Indian city cutting down trees to widen traffic-choked roads. A controversial, and expensive, new project aims to make Bangalore more walkable instead

In traffic choked Bangalore, the motorist is king. In this city of 11 million people and 5m cars, pedestrians are shoved on to narrow, potholed, often non-existent pavements with deadly results. So far, all attempts at easing congestion have been aimed at widening roads by cutting down trees.

Now, a controversial new project is revamping Bangalore’s roads, aiming to make it a more walkable city. The Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Road Extension) roads have extra-wide pavements on both sides of the road, unheard of in Indian cities. In some cases, the combined width of the pavements is wider than the road itself. This is intentional: unlike the old pavements, which often featured external – and lethal – electric wires, sewerage and water pipes, the new roads accommodate all utilities under the pavements. Tender SURE roads also have carefully allocated spaces for parking cars and bikes and many will have cycle lanes. Currently, only two roads in the city’s central business district have been completed, but a total of 50 have been earmarked for Tender SURE, at a cost of 2bn rupees (£20.25m). There are also plans to take the roads to Chennai and Hyderabad.

There’s been opposition from some motorists and local shops. “The pavements are great, but they are just too wide,” said Uday Gurunath, an auto rickshaw driver, echoing a popular objection. “The narrower roads get completely clogged with traffic, especially when schools in the area close for the day.”

In an area with so many schools, it makes sense to have wide pavements so children can walk to school Gautam John

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tender SURE roads have extra-wide pavements on both sides. Photograph: Shreyas Sreenivas

“My commute time has been doubled,” says Gulab Chand, a seller of paan (a betel leaf chew) who has worked in the area for 52 years. “And my business has fallen from 3,000 rupees (£30) to 500 rupees per day because there’s not enough parking.”

But many beleaguered pedestrians welcome the roads. Gautam John, a stay-at-home father and frequent pedestrian, says: “I can actually take my one-year-old daughter out in a stroller now, because the new roads have ramps. On the old roads, I spent more time carrying the stroller. In an area with so many schools, it actually makes sense to have wide pavements so children can walk to school.”

The roads are the brainchild of Janagraha Urban Space Foundation (JUSP), a non-profit working in tandem with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the government body responsible for Bangalore’s infrastructure. Its co-founder, Swati Ramanathan, defends the design of Tender SURE: “If we let loose a hundred cars in a wide part of the road, we will have a bottleneck where the road narrows to allow only 25 cars to go through. With varying road width conditions, vehicles park randomly and people walk on the roads since there are no pavements. What we should be aiming for is a continuous, smooth flow of traffic.”

Walkable city advocates argue that if nothing is done to cut down on car usage, congested downtown traffic is projected to slow to a speed of 5km per hour in 2020. “In no part of the world are city planners encouraging people to take private transport rather than walk or cycle,” points out John.

The high cost of the new roads has also drawn criticism. St Mark’s Road, a crucial arterial road that has got the Tender SURE treatment, cost 103m rupees for just 900 metres. In contrast, a conventional road would cost about 10m rupees per km, but without any of the utilities, parking bays or landscaping, says Basavaraj Kabade, executive engineer at the BBMP’s Traffic Engineering Cell. Most crucially, says Kabade, a traditional road only lasts three years, which makes frequent repairs by myriad local bodies necessary. Instead, the Tender SURE roads claim to follow a “fix once and fix right” approach.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Utilities are buried beneath the pavement, leaving room for walkers and landscaping. Photograph: Shreyas Sreenivas

On a weekday, I walk down St Mark’s Road. The wide, even pavements are everything that was promised. For the first time in years, I can walk without gingerly negotiating gaping manholes or lethal wires. Still, it is apparent that a pedestrian culture may take some time to build. “Do you see anyone walking here?” asks Chand. “My customers are simply going elsewhere, not walking to me.” But Ramanathan believes in the “build it and they will come” model. “Safe pavements have to be considered a public right, regardless of numbers of pedestrians,” she says.

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The Tender SURE roads have also prompted flip-flopping from government. When the roads were first unveiled, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah buckled under criticism, promising that further roads would have narrower pavements. Recently, he went back on that, pointing out that the city has more pedestrians than road traffic.

Can international road building standards work in India? The forest of bollards on the pavements, meant to discourage vehicles from parking, are already being damaged by bikers mounting the pavement in peak traffic. “If we want foreign roads here, we are all going to have to cooperate, or else it will not work,” says skeptical rickshaw driver Gurunath.

As to that, even Ramanathan agrees. “Changing mindsets in a diverse city of 11 million residents is a slow process. Not starting at all though, is not an option.”