A Decade Of TenderSURE: Has This Not-For-Profit From Bengaluru Paved The Way For Better Roads?

In 2011, Bengaluru, often hailed as India's Silicon Valley, embarked on a transformative journey to upgrade its urban infrastructure with specific focus on urban roads. Spearheading this change was Jana Urban Space Foundation ( Jana USP), an urban planning and design not-for-profit that has played a pivotal role in shaping the city's modern landscape.

Recognising the glaring inadequacies in urban road design and the chaotic management of utilities that plagued Indian cities, Swati Ramanathan, Founder of Jana Urban Space Foundation, conceived and authored 'Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Roads Execution)' guidelines in 2011.

These comprehensive standards aimed to revolutionise road construction by prioritising equitable distribution of right-of-way, organising underground utilities under the footpaths on both sides of the road, ensuring pedestrian safety and continuous walkability, and establishing robust implementation and maintenance protocols. 

The Tender SURE guidelines contain two volumes. With Volume 1 outlining what is on, above and under the right of way, and Volume 2 providing the model framework for contract agreement or what is called as the Typical Contract Agreement.  

It has been more than a decade since the conception of these street guidelines. When it was first published it claimed to be the resolution to Bengaluru’s never-ending cycle of temporary fixes that arise from inadequate design and poorly monitored construction efforts. It had within it methods and means to do away with the ever-growing budgetary expenditure on digging the same roads, time and time again. 

So 10 years on, how has TenderSURE fared?  

Have TenderSURE roads helped ease Bengaluru’s notorious chaos of traffic, broken footpaths, overflowing drainage, spaghetti-like electric and telecom cables?

Also, how are other Indian states tackling these issues?

To find answers to these questions, Swarajya spoke to Nithya Ramesh,  Director, Urban Design at Jana Urban Space Foundation.

“TenderSURE was written in 2011, prior to that there were the standards of the Indian Road Congress (IRC), a government organisation, which comes under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. Initially, IRC guidelines covered only highways. As a result engineers countrywide would follow national and state highways standards for urban roads. This is why we had all our roads designed only for vehicles with no mandate for footpaths and no guidelines for utilities.

“However, after TenderSURE, the IRC in the last two to three years created guidelines for urban road construction. I am given to understand that they have also begun to create standards for underground utilities as well, but it is yet to be published.

"On similar lines, several states, cities and civil society organisations have now created their own guidelines. However, to the best of my knowledge there are no other guidelines which cover underground utilities and the equitable division of the right of way, which look at footpaths specifically, provide implementation modules, and have within them contractor selection guidelines”.

So the question arises: if such prescriptions exist, then who do even new roads in cities like Bengaluru still suffer from old ailments?  

“The main issue is that none of these guidelines or standards are  mandatory“, Ramesh laments.

 “This is in stark contrast to any other sector. For example, the building by-laws of Chennai state that the building height cannot exceed a certain extent. It would be considered as a violation if a slightly higher building is built. The same is true when it comes to the regulation of design for side setbacks, front setbacks etc. 

“But since none of the road guidelines, including that of  IRC, are made mandatory, entities can choose to follow it or not. They can choose to follow bits and pieces of it as they or the engineers in our country deem fit. This becomes a major issue when it comes to uniformity and sustainability”

If such norms promise to ease the lives of both citizens and legislators alike, should they not be made the law?

“This is what we at Jana are working towards, but it is an uphill journey. The hope is that we see big policy changes in the next 3-5 years. I think our focus in India across union, state and city governments has always been on expressways and highways. To be fair, the IRC standards are fairly fantastic. In the last 10 years, you would have realised how much the city to city travel distance has reduced because of the amazing growth of highways. For me, being in my 40s, it's been phenomenal. Two decades ago, I would have had to spend a whole 24 hours on a journey to my hometown, now it does not even take seven hours.

“But these standards are not the best fit for cities. The focus at the union, state and city level is highways and cars. You will hear politicians only announce highways, expressways and flyovers. And as most engineers have been similarly schooled they tend to favour private vehicles in the design of roads. The battle has been to change that mindset, roads are for all, pedestrians included. When we started 10 years ago, there was so much opposition to even providing for a footpath, now, a decade later post smart cities etc, no one denies the need for a footpath.

“It's taken that long and maybe in another four-five years they will  be more accepting of the fact that we need mandatory guidelines and standards as then the realisation would have set in that urban roads are equally important.”

A key feature of the current approach to urban infrastructure development—particularly in projects led by agencies like the BBMP—is the overwhelming focus on construction-centric tenders. In contrast, tenders that seek urban design expertise remain relatively rare.

This imbalance is further exacerbated by the lack of regulations requiring the involvement of urban designers in the planning of roads and public spaces. Additionally, many government engineering departments do not have dedicated urban design roles within their organisational frameworks.

To overcome these challenges and promote a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to urban development, at least two reforms are essential.

1. Firstly, new regulations should mandate that projects exceeding a certain financial threshold or scale must begin with urban design tenders. These design frameworks would then guide the subsequent construction tenders, ensuring greater coherence and quality in execution.

2. Secondly, there is a need to build internal urban design capacity within government bodies. Establishing such in-house expertise would pave the way for more integrated, design-led urban development that prioritises functionality, aesthetics, and the overall public experience.

Another reform that is needed is in the awarding of contracts through the least cost (L1) method. 

Once the construction tender is floated, through e-governance platforms or newspaper advertisements, contractors make their bids. Sometimes (not always) there is a technical evaluation round and marks would be given post evaluation. Finally a financial evaluation round is undertaken. 'L1', that is the least cost heavy bit, wins. 

“We need to move away from the L1 costing in our country. As this has really created a very bad precedent. Moreover, the technical evaluation round is not always carried out and regardless of the contractor's technical competence, if one bids low one usually gets the contract", Ramesh states.

“Even better would be to adopt guidelines like TenderSURE, that make the criteria so strict that only those who meet the standards can apply in the first place. Mandates such as you must build so many kms of a particular kind of road or have done at least 2 kms of storm water pipe laying amongst others, ensure certain quality, competence and experience.

“TenderSURE conditions are so stringent that at times, particularly in the beginning, we have had to re-tender, as too few contractors qualified to even apply (and bigger contractors tend to stay away from road projects). This in my opinion is a good sign because it is a sure shot way of getting the best quality.”

Earlier, BBMP’s usual practice used to be—the breaking of  the road into 20 odd parts, then allocating the same to 20 contractors through 20 different tenders. In such a scenario, there would be no synergy or handshake. One person would be in charge of the footpath, another would do the drain, another the lighting and finally one contractor would do the road. They all would work at different times and dig up each other’s work.

For one, this kept Bengaluru continuously under construction, and secondly it removes any accountability.

“In case of Tender SURE roads, an overarching contract is mandatory and only one entity would be liable even if subcontractors are engaged. We were the pioneers in interagency coordination and handshake between various components”, says Ramesh. 

"Similarly, while in the traditional BBMP practice, some contractors build poorly just so they get the chance to build again and subsequently get paid again, TenderSURE’s mandate for an operations and maintenance clause enforce liability on contractors, forcing them to take responsibility”. 

“At the end of the day as a not-for-profit, an advisor or consultant to the government who is designing, we have no final say on who they hire. We can only create the guidelines, the final decision rests with the government. However, the guidelines are created to be as tight as possible to prevent poor contractors from getting in".

Does this indicate that TenderSURE was initially greeted with the expected bureaucratic inertia and resistance?

“In fact, when it was first proposed, a consultant of the BBMP had even written about how TenderSURE would cause urban decay. However, after we succeeded in building a few roads and presented them with results on ground, attitudes automatically changed".

"We are now facing similar challenges in Uttar Pradesh where we have begun with the first set of roads; it will pass once they can witness what we have been only talking about on paper ”, Ramesh hopes.

How Have TenderSURE Roads Fared?

In the first phase in Bengaluru, between 2014-17, about 10 kms of TenderSURE roads were completed with the Jana Urban Space providing all the designs and site monitoring including at St Marks Road, Residency Road, Richmond Road, Museum Road, Commissariat Road, Cunningham Road and Vittal Mallya Road.

Then the BBMP themselves took up TenderSURE guidelines and built several more kilometres of roads, including the one in the renowned Church Street.

Subsequently, work on phase 2 was started. This included Church Street, KG Road, Nrupathunga Road, Modi Hospital Road, as well as roads in the Majestic area. The Smart Cities project added another 30km of TenderSURE roads.

Today, the TenderSURE network in Bengaluru stands at around 100 kms and growing. Additionally many other roads in the city have adopted TenderSURE guidelines for footpaths.

The Jana USP team recently completed an evaluation study of the completed TenderSURE roads as well.

“When contrasted with the scenario pre-TenderSURE, the results are staggering on all metrics, be it drivability, walkability and safety on Bengaluru roads. TenderSURE roads show 228 per cent more pedestrians,113 per cent more women while the need for operations and maintenance has been negligible", Ramesh reveals.

“Despite there being an operation and maintenance clause, the TenderSURE roads have been built so well with utilities under the footpaths, that the phase one contractor told me he did not have to clean the drain even once during the past 3-5 years. This clause is not put in to make the contractors pay but simply to ensure we build a great design and construction and consequently minimise or even negate maintenance and operation costs.”

The primary credit goes to the provision of adequate inspection chambers, placed every 20–30 meters along each utility. These chambers enable easy access for operations, maintenance, and new house connections without damaging well-constructed roads.

The guidelines have within them standards for eight utilities including, storm water drain, sewage, power, telecom, gas, street light and surveillance.

White-Topping Vs Asphalt 

Many roads in Bengaluru are being white-topped such as the Race Course Road, old ORR road, Hudson Memorial Road amongst several others. Given that the BBMP is white-topping 97 roads spanning 153 km at a total cost of Rs 1,700 crore, are there distinct advantages white-topped roads have over normal roads?

“If the roads are built the TenderSURE way it does not matter if concrete or asphalt is used. In Hubli-Dharwad (Shirur Park Road) and Uttar Pradesh we are building white-topped roads the TenderSURE way. In the context of Bengaluru, concrete roads have to be built at least to a depth of 200 mm. However, some roads in Bangalore were built with surface-level white topping, as a consequence they have washed off easily. In contrast, the first TenderSURE road ever built was the Vital Mallya road outside UB city which is concrete and has not been dug up once.”

Social Aspect

The first principle of TenderSURE is the equitable distribution of the right of way, to ensure every mode of transport has unhindered mobility paths. This was ensured through uniform travel lanes for vehicles and unbroken, evenly paved footpaths at entry-exits.

The past decade has witnessed how continuous walkability of TenderSURE has especially helped women, children, and the elderly. Women tend to use roads differently. Earlier, roads were narrow and catered largely to able bodied men. JanaUSP conducted surveys in four cities and discovered a definite link between the role of infrastructure (especially footpaths) and women’s participation in the workforce as it promotes accessibility and promotes walkability.  

“Initially TenderSURE roads were designed without any bollards, but in Bengaluru and in many other Indian cities, we noticed that two wheelers tend to get onto the wide footpaths, hence we had to include bollards.

"To prevent two-wheeler entry, closely spaced bollards were installed, but this also blocked wheelchairs and strollers. This issue was resolved by adding properly designed ramp crossings, tactile paving, and wider bollard spacing near property edges to accommodate wheelchair users and strollers. Observations show two-wheelers tend to stay closer to the travel lane edge, indicating the solution seems to be working”.

Geographical Context

The success of Tender SURE in Silicon City led to its expansion. Twenty kms of TenderSURE roads are now being built in Hubli-Dharwad.

Jana Urban Space has a fairly large team set up with a project management unit in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, as well where about 200 kms of TenderSURE roads are being built. Here, these have been rebranded as CM GRIDS roads (Chief Minister’s Green Road Infrastructure Development). 

Different states adopt TenderSURE under different names. In Odisha, it is called OdishaSURE.  Very small roads about 3 kms long are also being built in Assam and around 18 kms of Tender SURE roads are being built  in Shillong.  Jana USP is also engaged in TenderSURE  capacity building in nine cities through GIZ and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. 

Bengaluru however, remains the forerunner. “We have brought every state we have worked with to the city to study the roads. Even the Union Minister Mr Hardeep Singh Puri has come to study the TenderSURE roads. We ourselves have brought around 45 engineers from UP and Odisha to Bengaluru to look at the TenderSURE roads. “ 

Regardless of geography, the challenges remain the same. “For instance, we are building  about 13 intersections in Hyderabad without doing the roads as the police did not want to provide for footpaths as they feel that it would hamper the speed of vehicular movement. Similarly, the electrical contractors don't seem keen on putting the utility underground. We often face resistance as they are used to working overground. We have provided ducts even in Bengaluru for private telecoms but this has been a failure as they do not utilise it. Between them and the BBMP they seem unable to decide what to do, so you still see everything hanging from tree to tree.”

When asked if it was easier to build in smaller cities (like Hubli-Dharwad), Ramesh said - “Though easier to build roads in one sense as it has much less traffic, in another sense it is tough as we have to create everything from scratch. Some roads didn't even have sewage, we had to cater to that need as well. In Bengaluru things get done faster as we only have to clear the top 3-4 layers of the road and begin work as there are already so many layers of road underneath that we don't have to compact. In Hubli-Dharwad, when we did the first concrete road, there was no road at all, so we had to dig two three feet and create everything surface upwards, so it was sort of pioneering in a way. Similar was the case in Odisha where local roads had to be built from nothing ”.

But Uttar Pradesh has a different story. Ramesh tells us that Lucknow is very built up, though other places like Moradabad and Shahjahanpur may not be.

“Shillong being the capital is also very built up. Same is the case in Assam where Jana USP has been engaged to build the roads in Shivsagar”.

Big Vs Small

In established cities like Bengaluru, most projects are brownfield. This presents unique challenges, first is the issue of traffic. Traffic can not be stopped or movement be hampered. “We have to work around as the traffic police will not allow you to simply close the road and begin construction.”

Similar is the situation when it comes to utilities. Work has to be undertaken without disturbing the existing utilities. Many times contractors have to wait for the utilities to be phased out so that new ones can be laid on either side of the footpaths without cutting the current connections of the houses to water or sewage.  

Over the past decade TenderSURE roads have not been restricted to just big prominent roads but also many narrow roads as well, some notable examples include the Wood Street, Castle Street, Museum Crossroads and many other roads in small cities that were made part of the Smart City programme.

Under OdishaSURE, 65 roads with widths less than 10 m have been constructed. When asked about the difference in approach while dealing with smaller roads Ramesh had this to say: “The difference of dealing with smaller roads in comparison with larger ones, has largely to do with the amount of space available and what one can do with it. For instance, larger roads will enable you to have more travel lanes, smaller roads might have footpaths only on one side, or we might end paving everything in one level so that there may be a shared travel space. It is all a subject of where the road is located geographically and how much traffic and footfall it witnesses and whether it is a vending street or not. So the context matters.

“Roads that are less than 10 m are generally local neighbourhood roads with a lot of character. For instance, in UP there is this one road, which is surrounded by cattle farms. We had to design special drains as they keep washing out the cow dung. So smaller roads generally require specific customizations. A particular issue with local roads is that of box drains, these RCC boxes don't aid in speedy evacuation of water. They need to be replaced with pipe chamber systems that are easier to maintain.” 

Similarly, when it comes to residential roads, the biggest problem faced is that many Indians, across states and cities want to build the ramps that go to their homes right on the footpath. “They tend to raise their houses as they are often scared of flooding and end up breaking the footpath to build ramps. When questioned they often cite local political connections (MPs and MLA) as if that somehow sanctifies their actions. It's unfortunate that Indians display such apathy. Same is the issue with connections where citizens simply break the road whenever they feel the need for new water and sewage connections, due process is rarely followed”, Ramesh laments.

“The only resolution is to change user behaviour through awareness and education. Shift in priorities will result in the realisation that public spaces are meant to be respected and not abused. Indians need to realise that everybody has equal rights on the road and there needs to be equitable division of the same.”

What the Global North and SouthEast Asia Gets Right (And India Doesn't)

First is the excessive focus on vehicle priority. In the global north, they do not prioritise vehicular mobility over walkability, even Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Thailand are extremely public transport oriented. 

“While we are all about road widening they are about road tightening and improving the public space. Often things like providing ramps, easing pedestrian movement, facilitating adequate lightning etc. become not essentials but rather afterthoughts. This hyper-focus on vehicular mobility plagues all stakeholders from the local government, the traffic police and even the people.”

“When I work with city engineers across the board, be it Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, their focus, even when on urban roads, seems to be catered to moving traffic like it's a highway.

"We are always looking at moving vehicle transport, rather than looking at the road as a conduit for movement and public space. It should be viewed as a facilitator of all kinds of transport and all kinds of activities.

“The traffic police in particular takes some time to come onboard, it is not entirely their fault as they exist in a culture where it's ingrained in them that their only job is to think about vehicles as traffic. Humans and vendors are not given the same consideration. If there is any issue with the road their first instinct is to block pedestrian traffic, it will mean about 5 cars get to move much faster. They happen to provide a free left even if it means it endangers pedestrian lives.”

Then there are the issues of taking the utilities underground. Now that TenderSURE is being implemented in UP the biggest challenge is bringing the overhead head power lines underground.

However, in contrast, small cities in the United States also have overhead power lines but the difference is they are all built as per standards and are qualified by moratoriums. They operate with a completely different philosophy.

“They were surprised that as per TenderSURE we recommend moving the utilities under the footpath. This is because in case there is an issue with a utility then the pedestrian has to suffer, something that is a big no in their books. They believe that the utilities should be under the road and if need be, vehicular traffic can be impeded, not the pedestrian flow.”

“This is where the moratorium comes in, say if the sewage department digs up the road, they sign a moratorium with the city stating that for 5 years there shall be no requirement of any repairs there. Despite this assurance if the need arises then, because something wasn't done properly, a penalty of several times the cost is to be paid by the contractor when the repair is performed. Even for the repair of the road, standards have to be followed so that it is carried out in coherence".

In India, unfortunately, there are no such mandates, and even if they do exist, the problem then becomes the enforcement of such rules and laws. 

When asked how many years cities like Bengaluru will need to reach the same standards as that of the global north, Ramesh had this to say-

As we reflect on the decade-long journey of TenderSURE, it's evident that this pioneering framework has fundamentally altered how urban roads are conceptualised and constructed in India. What began as a solution to Bengaluru's infrastructure woes has gradually expanded to cities across the country—from Hubli-Dharwad to Lucknow, Shillong to Odisha—albeit under different names and with varying degrees of implementation.

However, significant challenges remain. The absence of mandatory guidelines, the persistence of the L1 bidding system, bureaucratic resistance, and an enduring fixation on vehicular mobility continue to impede wider adoption.

As Indian cities increasingly struggle with congestion, pollution, and degrading quality of life, the lessons from TenderSURE become not just relevant but perhaps urgent.

Maybe the most sobering takeaway from our conversation with Ramesh is her stark assessment: "If we don't change, we will die." The path forward seems clear—Indian cities must pivot away from auto-centric development toward models that prioritize public transport, pedestrian access, and sustainable urban spaces. As global metropolises from New York to Singapore have demonstrated, livability and efficient mobility aren't competing priorities but complementary ones.

The question isn't whether Indian cities should embrace comprehensive urban design standards like TenderSURE, but how quickly they can overcome institutional inertia to do so.