Bangalore has a historic waterway system that connects the lakes, providing a system in which the large amount of rainfall that the city gets is directed towards storage in the tanks and lakes. Emphasis on restoring only the lakes has ignored the feeders to the lakes themselves – the Raja Kaluves. Plagued by mismanagement, ignorance and apathy, these canals have been reduced to open sewers and garbage dumps. Additionally, mismanagement and lack of records have led to a large part of the wetland ecosystem to built up unscientifically, and lack of maintenance causing floods during the city’s monsoon.
This project was conceptualised to restore these Raja Kaluves to their primary purpose as carriers of stormwater for the city, ensuring the reduction of sewage and solid waste. By reframing the storm water drains from merely ‘ grey infrastructure’ into ‘public space’ the project aims to reconnect the citizens to their water heritage and ensure better management of the Kaluves with active citizen involvement. It also strives to provide more open public space for the health and wellbeing of citizens.
The K100 Citizens’ Waterway reimagines a stormwater drain as public infrastructure—visible, accessible, and integrated into everyday life.
Stretching across 11.6 km through central Bengaluru, the K100 Rajakaluve passes through dense neighbourhoods, critical institutions, and multiple urban systems. Once carrying sewage and solid waste, it has been transformed into a functional water network and a public space system.
This project demonstrates how design can make infrastructure observable—not hidden underground, but experienced, understood, and used by the city.
Project
K100 Citizens’ Waterway
Year
2020-present
Client
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)
What We Did
Design, Execution, Process Management, Facilitation
Status
Ongoing
Bangalore has a historic waterway system that connects the lakes, providing a system in which the large amount of rainfall that the city gets is directed towards storage in the tanks and lakes. Emphasis on restoring only the lakes has ignored the feeders to the lakes themselves – the Raja Kaluves. Plagued by mismanagement, ignorance and apathy, these Grand Canals have been reduced to open sewers and garbage dumps. Additionally, mismanagement and lack of records have led to a large part of the wetland ecosystem to built up unscientifically, and lack of maintenance causing floods during the city’s monsoon.
As the city has grown, the marshlands connecting the lake, once used by the village residents for agriculture and as common wetland has got channelised and integrated into the dense city. The city residents are no longer dependent on this water system for their daily needs further enabling the Raja Kaluve to become neglected as a waterbody and a crucial part of the city’s ecosystem.
K100 Rajakaluve, 1885, Bangalore Map
K100 Rajakaluve, 1948, Bangalore Guide Map, Survey of India
K100 Rajakaluve, 1983, Bangalore Guide Map, Survey of India
From neglected infrastructure to civic landscape
Before
- Stormwater drain functioning as an open sewer
- Large-scale solid waste dumping
- Illegal sewage inflows
- Encroachments and inaccessible edges
- Frequent flooding during heavy rainfall
- Unsafe and neglected public environment
After
- Restored hydraulic capacity
- Diversion of sewage from the stormwater system
- Continuous 5km public pedestrian network
- Restored visibility with the water system
- Public spaces overlooking the restored waterway
- Improved neighbourhood identity
More Than a Beautification Project
The K100 Citizens’ Waterway is not simply a landscape intervention. It is a systems project.
Rather than treating flooding, sewage, waste and public space as separate problems, the project addressed the entire urban watershed through coordinated engineering, planning, governance and design. Every intervention contributes to restoring the stormwater corridor to its primary function while making it visible and valuable to the city
Project Strategies
Flood Resilience
Flood resilience begins upstream and extends across the entire catchment. The project combined hydraulic improvements, coordinated desilting, flood modelling and landscape interventions to increase carrying capacity and reduce flood risk. Rather than addressing isolated bottlenecks, the strategy strengthened the performance of the stormwater network as an integrated system.
Water Quality Improvements
Restoring water quality required interventions across the entire urban water cycle—not just within the drain itself. The project focused on intercepting sewage, identifying contamination sources, improving sewer infrastructure and addressing pollution at its origin. By treating the catchment as one connected system, the strategy aimed to restore cleaner flows and improve the ecological health of the waterway.
Public Space
A well-used waterway is a better protected waterway. By transforming the rajakaluve into an accessible public corridor with walking paths, bridges, landscaping and lighting, the project created opportunities for recreation, connectivity and community ownership. Making the waterway visible encourages stewardship and strengthens its role as a shared civic asset.
Solid Waste Management
Keeping waterways clean requires both effective systems and active public participation. The project combined infrastructure improvements with better waste collection, community engagement, maintenance protocols and awareness programmes to reduce dumping into the drain. The strategy recognised that lasting change depends on governance, behaviour and shared responsibility working together.
Operations & Maintenance
Long-term success depends on continuous management, not one-time infrastructure investments. The project proposed integrated maintenance systems combining regular desilting, solid waste management, monitoring technologies and coordinated operations. A proactive approach to maintenance ensures that restored waterways continue to function effectively over time.
Complexity Behind the Project
Multiple Stakeholders
Restoring a waterway required far more than redesigning a canal.
The K100 corridor passes through some of Bengaluru’s most densely developed neighbourhoods. Decades of urbanisation had transformed the historic Rajakaluve into a corridor carrying stormwater, sewage, utilities, roads, bridges and informal activities simultaneously.
Its restoration demanded extensive coordination across engineering, planning and governance systems, requiring multiple public agencies to work together on a shared vision. The project illustrates that resilient urban infrastructure is as much about institutional collaboration as physical construction.
Floodable Landscapes
Public spaces created at the entry to the pathway allows for additional space for stormwater, preventing flash flood in the vicinity due to velocity of water during rains.
These spaces are designed to be flooded, and can withstand being submerged for up to 24 hours. The public spaces within the canal width are open to public only during the non monsoon period, with pedestrian movement being enabled both inside in the form of pathways and outside by creating continuous walkable streets.
Evaluation Report
Peruse the evaluation report of the project as of November 2025.
The K100 Citizens’ Waterway demonstrates that urban resilience is not achieved through isolated engineering projects, but by integrating ecology, infrastructure and public life.
It has become a model for rethinking stormwater systems as civic assets—showing how water infrastructure can reduce flooding, improve environmental quality, create public space and strengthen people’s connection to the city. Its lessons continue to inform broader conversations on watershed planning, climate adaptation and resilient urban design in Bengaluru and beyond.
