‘Bengaluru too big to manage like Electronic City’: BBMP chief responds to calls for ELCITA model

BBMP chief emphasized the challenges of managing a large metropolis, but cautioned against directly comparing Bengaluru Electronic City.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao has responded to growing comparisons between Bengaluru and the much smaller and better-managed Electronic City, saying such parallels fail to account for the massive differences in scale and complexity.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao.(X/M Maheshwar Rao)

In an interview with News18, Rao acknowledged the positive steps taken by the Electronic City Industrial Township Authority (ELCITA) and expressed openness to adopting innovations from their model. However, he emphasised that managing a sprawling metropolis like Bengaluru, home to over 14 million people, presents far more intricate challenges.

“Any new technology that can help us is welcome,” Rao said. “But we must recognise that Electronic City operates in a more controlled environment. The number of stakeholders is limited, the space is more manageable, and the nature of administration is very different from that of a city as vast as Bengaluru.”

He noted that while ELCITA’s success is worth studying, replicating its model across Bengaluru wouldn’t be straightforward. “We are dealing with a much broader canvas. The governance challenges are multiplied by the diversity of issues and the sheer volume of people involved,” he said according to the publication.

Rao’s remarks came in the wake of a social media post by Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who called Bengaluru’s living conditions “insufferable” and proposed that ELCITA be entrusted with managing major industrial areas of the city. She also suggested that BBMP officials could benefit from ELCITA-led training in ward-level governance.

Check out her post here:

In his response, Rao struck a balanced tone, praising ELCITA’s efficiency while pushing back against direct comparisons. “I have great respect for what ELCITA has achieved,” he said. “If there are practices we can adopt, we are more than willing to learn.”

He also addressed recent criticism over the city’s handling of rainfall and flooding. Rao pointed out that Bengaluru’s stormwater infrastructure is designed to handle 65–70 mm of rain, in line with national standards, but the city was hit with 104 mm of rainfall in a single day last week. “That’s the second-highest rainfall in a decade. Naturally, the system came under stress,” he explained.