Bengaluru billionaire recounts foreign visitor’s shock over city’s state: ‘Why are the roads so bad?’

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw highlights Bengaluru's civic issues, sharing an overseas visitor's concerns about poor roads and garbage.

Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has long spoken about the civic and infrastructural challenges that plague her hometown of Bengaluru. She has once again put the spotlight on the issue — this time by revealing an outsider’s perspective of the city.

A foreigner's take on Bengaluru's roads has once again highlighted the city's civic challenges. (Representational Image)(Unsplash )

Mazumdar-Shaw took to social media platform X to reveal that an overseas visitor to Bengaluru asked her why the Silicon Valley of India had such bad roads and garbage strewn around. The foreigner, who visited the Biocon campus in Bengaluru, also wondered why the government did not support investment.

“Why are the roads so bad?”

“I had an overseas business visitor to Biocon Park who said ‘ Why are the roads so bad and why is there so much garbage around? Doesn’t the Govt want to support investment?’” the founder of Biocon posted on X.

The visitor further compared India unfavourably with China.

“I have just come from China and can't understand why India can’t get its act together especially when the winds are favourable?” the visitor told Mazumdar-Shaw.

This post from the 72-year-old billionaire comes days after she called upon the Karnataka government and civic authorities to urgently address Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure, stressing that the city has the potential to rank among the best in the world if its basic problems are resolved.

Social media weighs in

Social media users offered their own opinion on why Bengaluru, despite being the hub of so many global companies and Indian startups, struggles when it comes to clean and pothole-free roads.

“Short answer: public servants are absolutely corrupt and incompetent. Long answer: And unlike CCP, India’s democracy prevents us from making public servants accountable,” wrote X user Balaji.

“While the government is responsible for picking up garbage, the citizens are equally responsible for throwing garbage everywhere, spitting everywhere etc. Our civic sense is horrible to say the least,” another said.