Asphalting will be carried out on a 2.2 km stretch of M.G. Road between Trinity Circle and Cubbon Park Police Station Circle, with a 15-day deadline to complete the work.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K
Commuters passing through the Central Business District (CBD) of Bengaluru will have to brace for 15 days of traffic snarls as Bengaluru Central City Corporation (BCCC) plans to take up the much-awaited asphalting of M.G. Road from Thursday (March 5, 2026).“Preparations are underway to begin the work on March 4 evening,” said Vijayakumar Haridas, Chief Engineer, BCCC.However, a source in the corporation said that the work might be delayed by a day due to traffic police clearances and on-field preparatory work.According to the project details accessed by The Hindu, asphalting will be carried out on a 2.2 km stretch between Trinity Circle and Cubbon Park Police Station Circle, with a 15-day deadline to complete the work.Initial work, including milling, which involves removing the damaged top layer of the road and creating a uniform base for resurfacing, will be taken up in the evenings, after peak hours, to minimise traffic disruption.An executive engineer from Shantinagar said that the work will be carried out in patches so that even during milling, debris is cleared immediately, ensuring no hindrance to traffic on the next day.Akshay K., a regular commuter on M.G. Road, said that, for many years, only patchwork had been carried out on the stretch, making commuting far from smooth. “Re-laying the surface is necessary, but the civic body must ensure there are no delays. It’s a major link road between different parts of the city. There are very few alternatives. If civic officials allow the work to drag on, which they are known for, traffic disruption will be colossal,” he said.Minimal disruptionA senior traffic police officer explained that disruption will not be substantial for the first eight to nine days, although minor delays are inevitable.“In the first phase, milling will be carried out. There will be no diversion, as vehicles can continue to use the milled surface. Only when asphalting begins will we have to divert traffic,” the officer said.Police sources said that although there are alternative routes to M.G. Road, they are also congested during peak hours as they serve as connecting links in central Bengaluru.BWSSB drops plan to change water pipelinesEarlier, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had planned to replace pipelines along M. G. Road, but a source in the board informed The Hindu that the plan has been dropped after the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) revised its proposal.“Since the pipelines were laid about 40 years ago, we planned to replace them while the white-topping work was underway. But, white-topping work part of the project was scrapped, and GBA is only asphalting the road, which will be completed in a lesser time frame. Our work will take longer than that. Hence, we dropped our proposal. In any case, no major pipelines run through the stretch,” said a BWSSB official.Earlier, the GBA had planned to white-top M. G. Road, and entrusted the work to BSMILE. However, traffic police denied permission to work for an extended period, as they could not rely on alternative routes for long, considering the high vehicle density on M.G. Road. Bengaluru Traffic Police said it would bring traffic in the heart of the city to a standstill.The project was later transferred to BCCC from the special purpose vehicle. The works will now be taken up under the Chief Minister’s Infrastructure Development Programme (CIDP) for Shantinagar constituency. The government of Karnataka has sanctioned ₹25 crore under a package in which seven roads, including M. G. Road, will be re-laid. Published - March 03, 2026 04:57 pm IST
