BENGALURU: To ease the ever-increasing traffic problems in the city, the state govenrment may consider introducing a Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) system soon.
The first meeting of the Vision Group on Industrial Development of Karnataka, which was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday, discussed the introduction of BRTS in the city. According to the Vision group members present in the meeting, this was the major subject for discussion.
Speaking to Express, Mehroz Khan, member of the vision group, and expert on public policy matters for industrial development, said, “Though it was a formal meeting called by the govenrment to brief about their work all these days, the members of the group raised some important issues, including traffic problems.”
As the BRTS system is in place in Ahmedabad in Gujarat and doing well, the members wanted the government to consider it for the city also. In 2007, BMTC and BBMP submitted report to the government on implementation of BRTS in the city. “As there is already a report pending, we suggested the government to take it up,” explained Khan.
Another member, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, pushed for speedier completion of TenderSURE roads to provide some solutions to traffic congestion. The members also suggested to the government to look for places outside Bengaluru for setting up industries or for investments, considering the increasing number of industries in the city.
On his part, Siddaramaiah, while referring to providing better infrastructure, said that since 2013-14, the government has provided `5,606 crore to BBMP for creating and upgrading infrastructure. Further, in the current budget, `5,000 crore has been made available under the Chief Minister’s special package for creating various facilities.
The CM said, “Our government is pushing for investments in tier-II and tier-III cities. All the required infrastructure will be created to attract investors. In fact, some major industrial infrastructure projects like CBCIC, BMECP, NIMZ, Machine Tool Park, Japanese Industrial Park, etc., have already been initiated.”
“The Vision Group can bring out a comprehensive Vision Document, which will serve as a guide for future development of industry and related sector. This document will include long-term strategies, enabling the government to plan and implement policies at appropriate time intervals, within next ten years,” Siddaramaiah said
Industries R V Deshpande, Tourism and IT/BT minister Priyank Kharge, Social Welfare minister Anjaneya, Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav, Additional Chief Secretary K Ratna Prabha, Secretary Latha Krishna Rao and other officials were present.