The 2014-15 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget described the project as an online geographical information system platform that would assign every road a permanent identification number and record all related information. The proposal envisaged a comprehensive civic asset database linking roads with drains, underground cables and other infrastructure so that developmental works could be tracked across agencies. The concept followed the principle of property identification numbers and was intended to provide a persistent audit trail for works and payments.
Manjunath Raju, former BBMP Taxation and Finance Committee chairman, conceptualised the tool while arguing that civic administration should be driven by data and transparency. The mapping exercise digitally documented more than 13,000 km of roads, enabling officials to log asphalting, repairs and utility interventions. The platform can be used to detect illegal road cutting by optical fibre cable companies and unauthorised excavations by parastatals without BBMP permits, including the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM), and to initiate corrective action.
Civic activists and participants in urban governance maintain that the Road History Project is an excellent concept that was never fully implemented. Allegations persist that unscrupulous engineers, in collusion with contractors, raised multiple overlapping bills for resurfacing the same stretches, including Shantaveri Gopala Gowda Road. If implemented in letter and spirit the platform would record funds allocated, potholes identified and repairs undertaken, and would significantly strengthen accountability over the millions spent on Bengaluru’s road network.