[In the first part of our analysis we looked at the trends in outlay over the years, and why the 2025-26 budget was unprecedented. We analysed the allocation under different heads, and the changes from the last year, and how much was spent from the last year’s outlay.]

In June 2023, the Bengaluru Development Minister D.K Shivakumar, who also happens to be the Deputy Chief Minister, had launched “Brand Bengaluru” where citizens were invited to provide suggestions to enhance the “brand of Bengaluru”.

Based on these suggestions, Rs. 2828 Crore were allocated to be spent over three years starting from 2024-25. The main heads correspond to similar heads in the BBMP budget and have budget codes.

Sugama Sanchara, to enhance commuting in the city gets the largest allocation of Rs. 1580 Cr, more than half the outlay. Within this, white-topping of roads takes the lion share at Rs. 900 Cr followed by “Sanchara Yuktha” at Rs. 300 Cr. In the 2024-25 budget, Sanchara Yukta was defined as “under this project roads on either side of Buffer zone of SWD(storm-water drains) will be developed”(sic). There is little else known about this project and what they intend to do. For a scheme that is expected to take up Rs. 300 Cr, more than the education outlay and health spending, that is slightly alarming.

Rs. 100 Cr is earmarked for DPRs. These include DPRs for “Bengaluru City Comprehensive Mobility Plan – Urban Tunnel project, Flyovers, Concrete Roads”(sic). While the Tunnel Roads feasibility report was ambitiously named “Comprehensive Bengaluru City Traffic Management Infrastructure Plan” the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) is a different report with public inputs and is expected to guide the city’s planning.

The last CMP for Bengaluru was developed by the BMRCL in 2020 and ran into issues, and the city has been in need of a plan for many years now. However, the ‘-‘ attaching the CMP to the Urban Tunnel Project in the budget makes one wonder if the controversial tunnel roads project is the only mobility plan that the Government has.

Given that public suggestions are to have guided the “Brand Bengaluru” concept, the large allocations for white-topping and “skydeck” seem to give the lie to that.

Allocations in the two years

While this is the initial outlay, the 2025-26 budget brings in another budget code called “Micro Surfacing” into Brand Bengaluru. This code, numbered 05-220602, is defined as: “Repairs & Maintenance Arterial and Sub Arterial Roads (Maintaining of Arterial and Sub- Arterial Roads in Road Infrastructure Division in all the 8 Zones of BBMP)” (sic). It has been a standard budget code over the years, but has been tagged as Brand Bengaluru only in 2025-26 and will be considered as an allocation under it for the purpose of this analysis.

A closer look at the various budget codes gives us an idea why. While “Micro surfacing” used to be a budget code with an outlay of less than Rs. 100 Cr each year, the outlay has jumped to Rs. 700 Cr this year from under Rs. 50 Cr in 2024-25.

Meanwhile, Sugama Sanchara itself has shrunk from Rs. 880 Cr to Rs. 170 Cr. Given the connection to roads, these two budget codes probably need to be read together despite being placed separately in the budget – as outlays for roads. The other budget codes however have seen a drastic reduction especially Education Bengaluru, Clean Bengaluru and Green Bengaluru.

Spending in 2024-25

The spending of the Brand Bengaluru allocations from 2024-25 as per the Revised Estimates paints an interesting picture.

Most of the money was unspent, with the biggest chunk going to “Micro surfacing” which also explains why it needs to be read together with Sugama Sanchara. Rs. 0 of the Rs. 50 Cr allocation to education was utilised, while Rs. 1 Cr of the Rs. 125 Cr towards health was spent. It seems to suggest that the BBMP does not want to (or know how to) spend money if not to resurface roads expensively.

With only Rs. 385 Cr of the Rs. 1627 Cr utilised from the last year, most of it for road surfacing, one wonders if much of the Rs. 1430 Cr allocation this year will be used for anything else either. While it started out as an innovative idea inviting participation from citizens in planning their city with actual money set aside, in just one year “Brand Bengaluru” seems to be fizzling out into a yet another white-topping project.