Not so long ago, Bengaluru used to be a much more livable city, quite unlike the urban mess that it is now. With its stretching greenery, tree-lined streets, manageable traffic, pleasant air and friendly people, the city held a charm like no other. That was till the early 1990s. Then came the IT boom, which turned Bengaluru into a global city and triggered the cancerous growth that’s now threatening to kill the city. It was a boom that the city didn’t need.
Bengaluru is a victim of its own reputation. While the rising fame drew people from across the country (and abroad), the IT revolution that spawned hundreds of home-grown tech firms contributed to the population explosion in no less measure. From 41 lakh in 1991 to 84 lakh in 2011, the population more than doubled in two decades. The city is now estimated to have about 1.1 crore people.
From being the sixth most populous Indian city not too long back to the third most populous now, the population growth is the most disconcerting fallout of Bengaluru’s rise, and the chief cause of its ruin. Between 2001 and 2011, when Bengaluru added 33 lakh people, the population of Mumbai went up by just 4.6 lakh. At this rate, it’s a matter of time before Bengaluru overtakes both Mumbai and Delhi. It’s a nightmarish scenario for a city like Bengaluru, which was never meant to be mega city like Mumbai or Delhi.
An IISc study said Bengaluru will be a dead city in five years. The claim was based on the finding that the city saw a 78 per cent fall in greenery and a 79 per cent dip in number of water bodies in four decades. During this period it also witnessed a 525 per cent growth in built-up area, a trend, if continues, will turn Bengaluru into an unlivable urban sprawl. With 60 lakh vehicles on the road and counting, the traffic is a nightmare that never ends.
Stinking garbage heaps at street corners underline the mess that the city is in and the inadequacy of civic infrastructure highlights years of mismanagement by shortsighted bureaucrats and their greedy political bosses.
Almost everyone on the street is frustrated, unhappy and angry, and hence rude. Fights break out with little provocation and road rage is something one has to put up with every day, like traffic jams. The day is not far when people start killing each other in traffic-induced rage. Bengaluru is in need of help. But it would be naïve to expect solutions from the IT-Biotech czars of the city.
A vision group for Bengaluru created by the State government recently includes the likes of Narayana Murthy, of Infosys fame, Azim Premji of Wipro and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon. If this is the government’s answer to the ills plaguing the city, it only shows its lack of understanding of the situation. Or, it’s another example of desperate politics by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at a time when he is fighting to keep his job.
Other members of the group include T V Mohandas Pai, another with the Infosys tag, Kalpana Kar of Microland, Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, the high-profile Ramanathan couple who run an equally high-profile NGO Janaagraha, bureaucrats and lawmakers. No wonder the panel is facing flak for its elite composition.
What do you expect from people who have their own huge businesses to run and agendas to push? Planning for Bengaluru is a full-time job, and rent-a-quote people who have an opinion on everything under the sun but have very little to offer when it comes to translating ideas into reality are not what the city deserves.
Bengaluru has already paid the price for being the nice city that it was it was. The city needs urban experts with a vision, who can devote all their time to finding long-term solutions to its problems. It needs planners who can draw road maps that take into account issues that affect millions of its common citizens. It needs leaders and bureaucrats who will effectively implement these plans in a time-bound manner. What it doesn’t need is another high-profile panel with members who have little time for the city. Besides, the companies run by a few of these prominent citizens are themselves responsible for many of the city’s problems. They were witness to the worsening situation but did nothing but complain. Mazumdar-Shaw’s Biocon, for instance, is accused of polluting three lakes which supplied water to people in the neighbourhood.
The latest effort shows that the government has not learnt from its earlier experiments with such panels — it’s the third such grouping since 1999 and the previous two inspired much hope but delivered little. If the city’s IT-BT honchos had something to offer to the city, they had their chance. It’s time to look for real solutions.
Kiran Prakash
Deputy Resident Editor, Karnataka
E-mail: kiranprakash@newindianexpress.com