Bengaluru boasts of the country’s best Human Resources talent as people come here to work from across India. Its welcoming attitude works to Bengaluru’s advantage. The city has grown into an unwieldy metropolis as it is growing faster than what governments can do. The city needs to urgently fix many gaps in infrastructure and meet its citizens’ expectations.
Bengaluru city needs an implementable master plan for infrastructure. Such a plan can succeed only when the BBMP, RWAs, political parties and the government cooperate to achieve the objective. The BDA comes up with a masterplan for the city every decade, but it is not implemented strictly. The focus should be on building infrastructure, easing traffic congestion, garbage management and cover water, security and social needs. Creating micro plans for each zone will be a good start. But, for this we will have to give the mayor a five-year term.
The city which ranks high in economic growth should grow by decongesting and improving connectivity. The government should incentivise people who move into nearby satellite towns. The Peru Ambassador to India, H.E. Carlos R. Polo, who visited Bengaluru last week was taken aback by the city’s beauty. He told me it is facing similar problems like Peru’s capital Lima, where one-third of the country’s population reside. Peru has already started developing other parts to incentivise people to stay back in nearby towns.
This type of planning will require a robust suburban rail network around Bengaluru by using existing railway infrastructure that will decongest the city and develop neighbouring towns. Tumakuru can be made into a manufacturing hub, Mysuru a banking hub, Anekal, the state’s IT capital and so on.
This suburban network should be complemented by a Metro network within the state capital. Phase 3 of the Namma Metro should be hastened. This will help reduce the city’s vehicular traffic. This number will reduce drastically if citizens can access public transport systems within short walking distances and are reasonably priced.
There are several projects on the cards, but Bengaluru as a city is outpacing them. Take the example of the Intermediate Ring Road. It was built to connect Koramangala with Indiranagar and make travel between southern and eastern parts easier. Now, its completely choked. The government should think of innovative ways to scale mobility. Building roads along the raja kaluve network is not a bad idea as this will become the fastest way to criss-cross the city.
While we thank defence forces for retaining parts of the city as lung spaces, the Army should allow new corridors to be built within its lands as traffic around its boundaries are increasing. There is no dearth of solutions. We only lack implementation.
Our economic activity should concentrate around healthcare, education and affordable social infrastructure. For such infrastructure to be put in place quickly over the next two to three years, the local, state and central governments must turn to corporates and encourage PPP models.
SOLUTION:
The mayor should have a five-year term as the current one-year term is too short and does not allow anyone to do justice to the job. A viable water management plan must be put in place. By empowering citizens, RWAs and giving more power to the mayor, the city will breathe again.
Vikram Viswanath
Hon. Consul for Peru in Bengaluru with jurisdiction over Karnataka, Kerala and Goa