As mobility plan languishes, cyclists risk lives on Bengaluru roads

Bengaluru: Nearly four years after the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) released its final Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) 2020 to push the city towards sustainable, multi-modal mobility, the promise of better non-motorised transport remains woefully unfulfilled.

Cyclists, who are at the forefront of the movement, are paying for this gap with their lives. Between 2021 and 2023, nearly 49 cyclists lost their lives in road accidents in Bengaluru, which experts point out is due to the lack of safe cycling infrastructure in the city. According to the traffic police, most of these deaths occurred on major roads in and around industrial areas in the city.

Little to no progress

It has been over six years since the DULT submitted the first detailed designs for the bicycle sharing infrastructure. However, without usable cycling infrastructure in the city, this plan did not see light of day.

The CMP detailed the construction of 600 km of cycling tracks in three phases by 2035, of which the first 50 km should have been constructed by 2022. The city currently has only 2.5 km of a disconnected cycle lane restricted to the central business district.

Sathya Sankaran, mobility activist and ‘bicycle mayor of Bengaluru’ noted that, of the 600 km of cycling tracks planned, the city should have had at least 300 km by now. “It is easily possible to create cycle tracks on all wide arterial and major roads, where traffic moves quickly. The BBMP has to implement what the DULT planned on war footing,” he said. 

Difference of opinion

Over the past two years, DULT has drawn up detailed drawings for cycling networks in all BBMP zones based on site surveys.

This includes constructing cycle lanes on high density corridors. A senior engineer told DH that they submitted the report to the BBMP less than two months ago and are awaiting feedback from the BBMP. “They have yet to get back to us if they have any queries but it’s up to them to take it forward now since we are just an agency that conducts a study but cannot implement it,” said the engineer.

BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Girinath told DH that the BBMP’s “existing designs do not match the designs drawn up by DULT” and if they were not aligned with the CMP, they wouldn’t be possible. However, he assured that newer roads taken up by the BBMP will have pedestrian walkways and cycle lanes along the stormwater drain network.

Overarching authority for planning 

While the BBMP is currently in charge for implementing active mobility plans, including footpaths and cycling lanes, the ideal body to integrate these plans is the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA). However, one and half years since the passing of the BMLTA Act, no body has been constituted yet.

Mobility experts Srinivas Alavilli and Satya Arikutharam noted that this was merely due to “lack of political will”.

The BMLTA will serve as the overarching authority to look at “the big picture”, resolve priorities of different agencies, take scientific decisions based on consistent transport data it has calculated and then direct agencies to act, explained Srinivas. 

“The BMLTA’s role as a statutory body is to integrate different transport modes and hold whichever implementing agency accountable. Since this body has not been established yet, nobody is held accountable, and that’s why nothing has happened yet,” said Satya.