Perhaps the most faithfully adhered tradition in modern India is the grinding halt of function and safety that our cities religiously observe annually when the monsoons arrive, somehow, always finding our local authorities unprepared, surprised and unqualified to deal with the obvious fallout of downpouring.

It is curious how year after year cities like Mumbai, despite their enormous civic budgets, are engulfed in an annual deluge that always brings about turbulence and commercial setback unbefitting of cities of this stature. The repetitiveness of these issues is indicative of cancerously deep-rooted problems.

The Monsoon Test

Rains serve as a powerful stress test for urban infrastructure. It is a barometer for how well the drainage and stormwater management system, transportation networks, power and communication grids and networks, public health and emergency services, among so many other pivotal aspects, function under pressure.

In cities that host millions, there is an expectation from these systems to operate at a bare minimum efficiency which is never met.

The South-West Monsoon Winds march in like a belligerent examiner who lays bare the failures of our elected corporators, and all larger political stakeholders at the state and central level, after another year’s reprieve for preparation, planning and execution.

The quality and integrity of their lofty ‘Master Plans’, exalted road inaugurations and other such promises are tested and more often than not, proven to be unreliable.

Every year, a photo of the flooded Minto Bridge in Delhi, Mumbai’s Sion waterlogged, Bengaluru’s streets turned to rivers in our news are grim traditions. The familiarity of these incidents is a symbol of civic inertia.

Between downpours, we forget. But when floods strike, the truth is unavoidable: our cities lack strategy, urgency, and often, even basic preparedness. The question isn’t if the next disaster will come—but why we keep failing to stop it.

Cities drown in their own Growth

Cities are meant to be the lifelines of all countries, they are economic hubs that stand as the edifices of their respective nations’ grandeur, pulsating with life and representing the peak of their standard of living. Yet in India, chronic urban problems of flooding, traffic paralysis and infrastructural breakdowns are far too elementary to be an annual fixature in our most prestigious cities.

Why, then, do these issues remain unresolved? Countries like the UK, despite facing famously relentless rain, have long developed lasting, functional solutions for their cities and insulated their economic engines.

Juxtapose it to the condition of our nation where after all these decades authorities rely on the hollow excuse of ‘exceptional rainfall’ or ‘unprecedented circumstances’ for circumstances that reoccur in almost exactly the same way every year.

Mumbai possesses the wealthiest civic body in the nation, the same might be routinely spent on piecemeal investments but it always fails to establish a long-term fix, for example the Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drain Project which expended Rs. 17,840 crore on failing pumping projects all the while never offering a long-term fix.

Similarly, Bengaluru is a city of lakes and is made primarily of 4 valleys which act as natural drainage channels. The lakes comprise a natural flood management system. In the 1990s, there were over 1400 lakes which have been reduced to 200 by 2020 owing to rampant land encroachment which is exacerbated and sustained by corruption and authoritative lethargy. This mismanaged urbanisation highly compromised the city’s efficacy in combating monsoons and its exponentially grown population now withstands a proportionately deteriorated flood management system.

Bengaluru has a GDP of $360 Billion and hosts 87 Fortune 500 companies. The 2022 floods inflicted losses of ₹220 crores on the IT Hub alone. As India’s urban population grows, the infrastructural issues are only going to get exacerbated every day.

What we’re missing

The solution is elementary. We, as a populace must escape our messiah complex. We want one singular face who is to be celebrated for all successes and blamed for any failure; this attitude is prevalent from cricket to politics. However, imagine a company with centralisation to such a degree that for a janitor to get a new broom, he must write a mail to the CEO and await response. Would such an entity ever be able to flourish?

Bengaluru’s governance structure embodies this dysfunction. While the BBMP serves as the elected municipal body, its authority is diluted by parallel agencies like the BDA, Slum Development Board, and BMTC—all reporting directly to the state government. This creates inevitable conflicts, particularly when jurisdictions overlap. For instance, for BBMP to carry out slum rehabilitation they must take approval from BDA (land regulation), and Slum Board—a bureaucratic tangle that routinely stalls progress.

To remedy this, state governments must empower the city administration; a political concession no Chief Minister has been willing to make.

Long-Term

The local bodies need to be directly empowered to be held accountable. They need to be given more money and therefore, more responsibilities which would make them directly more accountable.

Decentralisation of political powers means real autonomy; good organisations possess a liberal structure which gives freedom of method of function to gain results which are then judged on their merit. Status quo follows the exact converse; Governments prefer micromanaging these institutions and then subsequently are not held accountable for their results. They should be given the capability of collecting their own revenue by giving them direct control over road taxes, property taxes, parking fees etc.

It would also help in alleviating bureaucratic congestion. In countries like China, more than 50% of the government employees are placed at a local level, while the converse is the case in our country, further compromising local efficiency. Concentrating power at the local level could reverse the situation. People need to demand the same from their politicians if it is to be achieved and hope for multiple leaders rather than one.

Short-Term

Plans like AMRUT that revamp administration of a city can be used to jumpstart the process of transitioning to a city with stronger local governance.

While AMRUT was consecrated with the aim of improving urban life, its top-down approach often ignores local needs. In Haryana, identical sewerage projects were simply replicated across cities with no alterations to the plans despite geographical differences. Meanwhile, UP’s Tier 2 and 3 cities like Shahjahanpur faced years-long delays as the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) lacked technical planning capacity.

For this mission to truly succeed, it should be seen as an opportunity to rid the administrative incompetence at the local level, such that it can be trained to handle more responsibilities in the long term.

The mission should establish permanent technical units within ULBs (3–5-year PMUs) to provide sustained support where state resources fall short. Peer-learning programs could pair high-performing cities like Indore with struggling ULBs for hands-on mentorship. Most crucially, AMRUT must address the unfinished decentralization agenda—thirty years after the 74th Amendment, states still retain control over water, planning and sanitation through parastatal agencies, leaving local officials powerless despite their superior ground knowledge. Real empowerment requires challenging this entrenched status quo. It gives impetus to hand over greater responsibilities and finances to the local authorities.

Conclusion

Power divulgence is a major endeavour and the politicians would always be disinclined to execute the same. However, it is in the best interests of the citizenry to actively demand the same, for the rains every year around this time don’t ruin anything, but merely reveal what is already broken. As ambitious as Government plans are, their lack of anticipatory governance, inflexible approach and general top-down progression will never allow for the efficiency and insight that cities of our country deserve to have.

Written by,
Vatsal Chhawchharia

References

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7zlm3mpejo
2. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/upsc-coaching-centre-tragedy
indian-cities-monsoon-9486474/
3. https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/why-indian-cities-flood-monsoon
urban-planning-climate-crisis-125052701098_1.html
4. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/mumbai-rain-flood-why-indian-cities-delhi
bengaluru-chennai-submerged-urban-floods-reasons-explained-2730988-2025-05
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5. https://policyresearch.in/bengalurus-water-crisis-a-crisis-in-common/