We Studied 30 Roads in Bengaluru. Not Even 10% of Indian Roads Congress Guidelines Are Followed
Introduction
India does not have to invent how to build a good road. The standards are already written. They are published by the Indian Roads Congress, commonly called the Indian Road Congress or IRC.
Infra Kaizen wanted to know one thing: are these standards actually used on Bengaluru's roads? We studied 30 roads in the city. Not even 10% of the IRC conditions are followed on them.
What is the Indian Roads Congress?
The IRC was set up in 1934. It is the national body of highway and road engineers. Over the years it has published codes and guidelines for almost every part of a road. A few examples:
- IRC:86 covers the geometric design of urban roads, such as lane width and medians.
- IRC:35 covers road markings.
- IRC:67 covers road signs.
- IRC:93 covers the design and installation of traffic signals.
- IRC:103 covers pedestrian facilities, such as footpaths and crossings.
- IRC:SP:41 covers the design of junctions.
- IRC:SP:50 covers urban drainage.
These codes come from many years of engineering experience and accident study. Government road agencies, including GBA (earlier BBMP) and BDA in Bengaluru, are expected to design their roads as per these codes.
What we found on 30 roads
We compared 30 Bengaluru roads with the conditions given in the IRC guidelines. On these roads, not even 10% of the conditions are met.
We expected the old roads to score low. So we also looked at a new one. SM Krishna Road is a 10.7 km signal-free road connecting Mysore Road and Magadi Road, opened in 2026 and also called the Bengaluru Business Corridor. It was designed and built fresh. Even this road does not follow 10% of the IRC guidelines.
This is the important point: if a brand-new road also fails, the problem is not old infrastructure. The problem is in the way roads are designed and approved today.
The problem for the citizen
- Lane markings, signs and junction shapes change from road to road, so drivers cannot predict what comes next.
- Pedestrians do not get proper footpaths and safe crossings.
- Water stands on the road after every heavy rain.
- Roads are built, then dug up and repaired, again and again. Public money is spent twice.
Root cause: design failure
Using the Toyota Business Practice method, we broke the big problem into smaller parts:
- Engineers are not trained on IRC codes. Many roads are designed from habit and past practice, not from the code book.
- There is no compulsory check before approval. Designs are cleared on alignment, width and cost. Nobody scores the design against IRC.
- There is no check after construction. The road is accepted when the work is physically complete, not when it meets the standard.
- Nobody is answerable. When a road does not follow IRC, there is no consequence for the designer, the contractor or the agency.
Solutions: step by step
1. Train the engineers. Every engineer who designs or approves a public road should be trained on the relevant IRC codes. Make this training compulsory.
2. Minimum 80% before the design is final. Before any road design is finalised, it should be scored against an IRC checklist. If the score is below 80%, the design goes back for correction.
3. Audit after construction. An independent team should check the finished road against the same checklist before final payment is released.
4. Publish the score. Put the IRC score of every new road in public. When people can see the score, quality improves.
5. Follow PDCA. Plan with the checklist, do the work, check with the audit, and act on the gaps in the next project.
Nobody can correct all of Bengaluru's roads by tomorrow morning. But if every new road and every re-laid road follows IRC from today, the city's roads will steadily improve over the next 10 to 15 years. That is a realistic plan.