Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw flags poor condition of Hosur Road; NHAI responds

Industrialist Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson, Biocon Limited took to the social media platform X, tagging Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, to highlight the bad road stretches on Hosur Road on Sunday. “Whilst NHAI boasts of its road infrastructure across the country, why is the country’s key IT corridor NH44 – Hosur Road so shoddily designed and ill-maintained?  It’s an eyesore – the medians and barricades are terrible, and the shoulders are not asphalted. Despite several complaints over several years there is no response,” she wrote. 

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) responded to her on X, saying the stretch was completed in 2010 and has since seen rapid urban and industrial growth. Currently, the stretch handles very high traffic volumes, with over one lakh daily commuters, adding to operational and maintenance challenges, the Authority said. While regular maintenance is being carried out by the concessionaire, periodic renewal works, including overlay, were completed in April 2025. NHAI has proposed four Vehicular Overpasses (VOPs), including at Veerasandra (Biocon) and work is ongoing at three locations, it said.

“At the Biocon location, excavation had begun for a retaining wall. However, following inputs from the Government of Karnataka, Traffic Police and BMRCL regarding the proposed Peripheral Ring Road, work was paused. The excavated portion has been temporarily backfilled. The contractor has been instructed to restore drains and median crash barriers, along with asphalting of damaged stretches — work is under way,” NHAI said. 

It further said that ongoing works by other agencies were also impacting the stretch. “Metro-related works by BMRCL, including four-lane and service road construction, are still in progress, with some stretches requiring rectification. Utility works such as cable laying by KPTCL have caused damage to crash barriers, which will be restored by the respective agency,” it said.