Bhopal News: Bhopal's Unified Road Map Hits Dead End As Agencies Shift Blame

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A year after the district administration directed the preparation of a unified jurisdiction map for Bhopal’s roads, the project has stalled, lost in a maze of conflicting claims and bureaucratic inertia.

While senior officials of the District Administration and Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) say the map is ready, on-ground engineers across departments claim they have not seen it. Meanwhile, the Public Works Department (PWD) outright denies any such map exists.

The initiative—meant to bring clarity to the jurisdiction of around 4,700 km of roads—was launched following Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s review meeting last year. During that meeting, agencies failed to explain who was responsible for maintaining specific roads.

In response, Collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh instructed BMC, PWD, Bhopal Development Authority (BDA) and the Housing Board to jointly prepare a colour-coded, unified map by September 30, 2024, to ensure transparency, fix accountabilityand reduce delays in maintenance and development.

But despite the clear directive, little progress is visible. Engineers, ranging from superintending to assistant level, say they have not received the map. Several administrative officers also confirm being unaware of its availability.

Once hailed as a solution to Bhopal’s long-standing road maintenance confusion, the roadmap now appears to be yet another missed opportunity, marred by poor coordination and mixed messaging.

Why it matters

A unified map was meant to:

• o Clearly fix maintenance responsibilities

• o Improve planning and resource use

• o Enable faster decisions

• o Help citizens know where to go for grievances

• o Boost coordination between agencies

Conflicting claims

Collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh said, “The Corporation and other agencies had prepared the map. I was informed of this”, while BMC Commissioner Harendra Narayan stated, “The map had been prepared.

The engineers would have it.” But PWD Chief Engineer Sanjay Maske said, “No such map has been prepared. All the roads in our department have signs.”

- Story by Staff Reporter