Who repairs a city road or flyover in India?
A city street and a nearby flyover may have different repair agencies. The exact stretch determines who orders the work and where residents can report a problem.
Who Decides?
On 13 October 2026, The Indian Express reported and photographed coloured road and flyover surfaces in Kolkata ahead of Durga Puja. That attention to the city's roads raises a separate practical question: when a road or flyover needs repair, which office can order it?
Begin with the exact stretch, not the city name
A road can pass through a municipal area without every part of it being maintained by the municipality. For a repair request, first find which agency maintains the particular street or flyover. The answer can change at a junction or where a street meets a bridge.
India's Constitution lists “roads and bridges” among subjects that states may give municipalities under Article 243W and the Twelfth Schedule. The word may matters: state law gives a city body its actual responsibilities. It does not assign every road inside a city to that body by itself.
Kolkata shows how the rule becomes concrete. Under sections 343 and 344 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, public streets vested in the Corporation come under the Municipal Commissioner's control; the Commissioner is to have those streets maintained and repaired. “Vested in” means the law has placed that asset with the Corporation. Section 343 also preserves exceptions for certain streets already held by the government, port or improvement trust, and allows state transfer or takeover for maintenance or development. That is why a complaint about a KMC street and one about a nearby flyover may need different offices.
Diagram by BharatQuests. Illustrative categories, not a map or a nationwide assignment of individual roads. Check the exact segment and local law. Sources: Constitution, Kolkata Act, HRBC tender and NHAI.
Why might a flyover have a different maintainer?
Some bridges are handled by state public works departments or a separate state body. The Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners, a statutory body under West Bengal's public works department, lists Gariahat flyover among its projects. In a notice dated 6 January 2026, HRBC invited bids for pothole and carriageway-surface work on that flyover. The notice identifies the body seeking the work; an invitation to bid alone does not establish that the job was awarded or finished.
Meanwhile, KMC's own 2026–27 budget speech describes its Roads Department resurfacing streets, restoring roads after utility trenches and repairing potholes. HRBC's invitation and KMC's budget account concern different assets in the same city. Neither identifies who commissioned the October decorative painting.
The pattern varies elsewhere. A state public works department can maintain a state road or flyover directly or through another assigned body. On a national highway, the National Highways Authority of India manages stretches entrusted to it and may use a contractor or concessionaire. A national-highway label alone does not identify the maintainer of a particular stretch.
Who pays, who repairs and who controls traffic?
KMC says property tax is its main revenue source; Article 243X also allows state laws to provide municipal taxes, assigned receipts and grants. A city may use its own crews or procure a contractor. State and national bodies use their respective budgets and work arrangements. These sources explain how routine maintenance can be funded and commissioned, not which source paid for a particular repair.
Traffic police have another job: managing movement and diversions when a road is closed or work affects traffic. A councillor can raise residents' complaints and press the responsible body for a response. The actual repair order, work supervision and payment sit with the agency responsible for that segment, under its applicable law and budget.
For a pothole, record the precise location and check who maintains the road before filing. In Kolkata, KMC's complaint form has a “Repair of potholes in Roads / Footpath” category and asks for the ward and location; its complaint procedure provides a reference number and status check. That is a route for a KMC street. For a separately managed flyover or highway, use the assigned agency's channel. If responsibility is unclear, ask: who maintains this exact stretch, and where should the repair request be logged?