A city in transition: From Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to Greater Bengaluru Authority Premium

The GBA will be headed by the Chief Minister of Karnataka as its Chairperson, with the Deputy Chief Minister serving as Vice-Chairperson. The authority will include top officials from various civic departments, urban planning bodies, and State agencies, ensuring that inter-agency collaboration is built into its structure.

As of May 16, 2025, Bengaluru has undergone a significant administrative transformation with the official establishment of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), replacing the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) as the city’s primary governing body.

In a move aimed at revamping the governance of one of India’s most rapidly growing urban centers, the Government of Karnataka has formally established the GBA, replacing the long-standing BBMP. This reform, rooted in the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024, came into effect on May 15, 2025, ushering in a new era in the administration of Bengaluru city. 

The BBMP that came into being in 2007 struggled to keep pace with the city’s explosive growth. Originally formed by merging the core city with surrounding municipal councils, the BBMP eventually covered over 709 square kilometers and governed more than 10 million residents. Despite its vast responsibilities, the BBMP faced persistent criticism for inefficiency, lack of coordination among civic bodies, and inadequate infrastructure planning.

From traffic snarls and potholes to flooding, garbage management, and water shortages, Bengaluru’s urban woes were often attributed to fragmented governance and poor inter-agency coordination. Multiple civic bodies —like the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM), and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) — operated independently, creating silos and administrative gridlocks.

The GBA aims to fix these systemic inefficiencies by creating a unified governance structure that can deliver integrated planning and services.

The GBA is a new urban governance body created to oversee, coordinate, and manage the affairs of India’s tech capital in a more cohesive and efficient manner. The formation of the GBA is guided by the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024.

Under the new system, the GBA will replace the BBMP as the overarching city governance body, coordinate across departments and civic agencies, ensuring unified planning and execution, oversee regional divisions of the city, with the plan to split Bengaluru into multiple municipal corporations for more localised governance and enhance transparency and accountability, with digital platforms and public dashboards for tracking civic services, said a member of Brand Bengaluru Committee, formerly known as Bengaluru Restructuring Committee.