Bengaluru's Five New Corporations Still Lack Elected Councils

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike dissolved in mid-2025 under the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024, giving way to the Chief Minister-led Greater Bengaluru Authority. Five new municipal corporations now handle day-to-day operations across Central, East, West, North and South zones, yet none have held elections for councils or mayors. Ward committees sit at the base of the structure but remain without elected oversight at higher levels.

The change arrived after years of calls to decentralise services in a city that spans more than 700 square kilometres. Residents and ward-level groups now deal with separate corporations for building permissions, road repairs and property records, while the GBA coordinates larger infrastructure across all zones. The absence of elected bodies means decisions on budgets, projects and appeals currently rest with appointed administrators reporting to the state government.

Municipal Bonds Enter the Picture

The Karnataka 2026-27 budget gave the five corporations explicit authority to raise development funds through municipal bonds tied to their individual balance sheets. Each corporation can now prepare financial statements and approach the market independently, a shift from the single consolidated BBMP accounts used until mid-2025. Officials in the North and South corporations, for instance, must first complete audited balance sheets before any bond offering can proceed.

This provision opens a new revenue channel at a time when state grants alone cannot cover the backlog of road widening, drain upgrades and park maintenance across the five zones. Bond proceeds would target projects already listed in the corporations' preliminary development plans, though the scale of each issue remains undecided pending election timelines.

Property Regularisation Moves Forward

State decisions have also granted legal status to B-Khata properties issued between 2009 and September 2024. Owners of these properties can now apply for conversion to A-Khata status under the new corporations. In addition, 30x40 ft plots no longer require an Occupancy Certificate for basic transactions, reducing one layer of paperwork for small residential sites in older layouts.

Applications will route through the respective corporation offices rather than a central BBMP desk. Staff at the East and West corporations have begun training on the updated verification process, though final guidelines on fees and timelines are still under preparation.

Next steps centre on three immediate tasks: setting election dates for the five corporations, finalising bond frameworks once balance sheets are ready, and processing the first wave of B-Khata regularisation requests. The Greater Bengaluru Authority will need to issue operational orders on these fronts before the end of the current financial year.