Bengaluru’s Deadliest Roads: A Cycle of Repairs, Ruin, and Repeat

The recent death of 32-year-old Medha Akarsh on Ananth Nagar Main Road has brought to light the shocking state of road safety in Bengaluru. The immediate cause of the accident was a sudden brake by the car ahead, but what’s more striking is the sheer number of potholes and damaged stretches on Bengaluru’s roads.

According to official data, 41,150 potholes have been identified across the city, with 39,887 repaired at a cost of Rs 33.85 crore as of March 2026. However, despite these efforts, the problem persists, with residents and public representatives constantly reporting new potholes and road digging for utility works.

Bengaluru’s roads are dug up repeatedly to lay water and sewage pipelines, electricity cables, gas lines, and optical fiber networks. This repeated excavation creates a risk of road-surface deterioration if reinstatement is delayed or poorly executed. Traffic police serve notices to contractors on pending road works, but contractors often blame the delay on other civic agencies and pending utility works.

The debate around Medha’s death shouldn’t just focus on one pothole or damaged patch that directly caused the crash. Road safety is about providing a total environment where drivers and riders can react safely. In a busy city like Bengaluru, roads need to provide enough traction, visibility, width, and predictability to allow such situations to be dealt with safely.

The latest accident numbers indicate the magnitude of Bengaluru’s road safety problem. In 2025, the city recorded 807 fatal road accidents in which 891 people lost their lives – more than two road deaths a day. North Bengaluru accounted for 286 of these fatalities, followed by South with 194, East with 170, and West with 157.

Police have identified speeding, violation of traffic rules, and failure to wear helmets as major factors behind fatal crashes. Infrastructure issues and ongoing road works can further increase the risks faced by motorists. Residents of Ananth Nagar say they’ve been living with the problem for years, approaching elected representatives and civic officials without avail.

“Roads in Anekal Taluk have been deteriorating for the last four years now,” alleged John Athaide of the Anekal Taluk Responsible Citizen Forum. Other residents pointed out that potholes develop in repaved portions within months, raising risks for children and other vulnerable road users.

The promised meeting between the council, civic officials, and road contractors may result in a solution that lasts. However, Bengaluru has seen repeated pothole-filling drives, road improvement programs, and technology-based efforts to identify damaged stretches. Yet the recurrence of potholes suggests that the city’s problem goes deeper than repairs alone.

What is needed is better coordination, stronger supervision of roadwork, and clear accountability when newly repaired roads deteriorate again. No road should be dangerous after a repair. Filling potholes won’t make Bengaluru safer; it requires monitoring how long repairs take, who digs up the roads, who fixes them, whether the work is done right, and which agency is liable if the surface fails again.

Medha’s journey to work on Wednesday was supposed to be routine. Her death has been a sobering reminder that road safety is about more than how well people drive; it’s also about providing roads where ordinary mistakes don’t turn deadly. The cycle of repairs, ruin, and repeat needs to break – for the sake of Bengaluru’s commuters and the memory of those who’ve lost their lives on its treacherous roads.

Bengaluru needs a comprehensive approach to road maintenance, better coordination among civic agencies, and stronger accountability when things go wrong. Its lifeblood is its roads, but they’re currently a source of death and despair. It’s time for the city to take a hard look at itself and ask: what kind of roads do we want? Roads that are safe, efficient, and reliable – or roads that continue to kill, one pothole at a time? The answer lies in the hands of Bengaluru’s civic leaders and residents – will they choose life over death on the city’s roads?