Garbage city to garden city: Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw shares what Bengaluru can look like with the right infrastructure

Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw sparked a conversation about Bengaluru after she shared the images, claiming they showed what the city could look like with better road planning and infrastructure. She believed that the Silicon Valley of India could be greener with better urban planning. She further called the state capital a ‘garbage city’.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Bengaluru Urbanism

Joining X, Mazumdar-Shaw dropped the graphic and wrote: “This is how we need to design and plan our roads to reflect our garden city. Unfortunately, it is now a garbage city with dwindling greenery.”

The images showed two versions of the elevated road corridor. The left side was titled “What We Built” and featured a concrete section with no trees. The labels described the site where trees had been removed, there were no sidewalks and service roads, and there were no amenities for the public.

However, the right-hand side, titled “What We Could Build,” reimagined the same stretch of road with trees, bike paths, public sidewalks, amenities such as light poles, benches, and trash cans. “Better urban planning = a better tomorrow,” concluded the graphic designer.

Netizens react

Responding to the post, one user wrote in the comments: “It is a boon to business, society that the government has built these concrete roads and spent millions of money. They have never studied their impact on the environment and the biodiversity of the earth. Those who propose to beatify Bengaluru must also understand.”

“Yes this beautiful city is destroyed like Delhi. Sarai Kale Khan highway to Akshar dham temple to Noida is all concrete and no greenery. Why no green belt, sidewalks with trees and green central fringe? Pollution can be controlled with nice infrastructure,” added another.

One said: “Couldn’t agree more. Administrators and politicians have teamed up to loot this town. They are interested in concrete roads because they can cut more iron, cement, etc. They can’t cut in planted trees.”

Another wrote: “No government will do this in Bangalore. It’s an opportunity turned into a cash cow. Greenery and water bodies will continue to deplete and our future generations must leave Bangalore.”

Someone else also claimed, “We can’t build this with the level of corruption going on.”

Another user said: “We are many decades behind China, our cities have turned into third world cities forever.”

About Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is among the most popular billionaire entrepreneurs in India. She serves as the Executive Chairman and Founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore. She is also the former chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

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