BENGALURU: Two of the major issues the city is facing is traffic and urbanisation, which is causing a lot of damage to our green city. Bengaluru’s capacity is only 30-50 lakh but our population is now reaching 1.3 crore. This then impacts our transport and environment and we face issues like garbage, potholes, etc.
It’s good that the city is regarded as the IT city and has contributed lots to the economy. But this brings with it an influx of people, which only adds more pressure. Think of the office goers. They work for eight hours but spend four hours alone in commute. Earlier no one rode on footpaths. But now, we see so many instances of this. With the increase in traffic, people lose patience and resort to such things.
The city’s traffic too has become a part of our everyday conversation, with many jokes emerging on it. But for how long will this continue? The government of the city should take pride in the green city tag we have earned but yet, trees are cut in the name of development.
The city has a lot of activism but we still have no solution. And the solution can only come from policymakers. Why can’t more facilities be built in other cities of Karnataka as well? This would relieve the pressure on Bengaluru. The same push that made Bengaluru what it is today can also be used to develop the other cities. All major media houses, hospitals and engineering colleges are here. But if we had more planned cities, we might be able to fix this issue.
Solution: We need policymakers to take action. Twenty per cent decongestion can also make a huge difference in terms of our traffic, parking, resources, environment and so on. Besides, if we want all of Karnataka to improve, it’s important to alleviate the pressure off Bengaluru and focus on the other cities in the state as well.
Let your mixed feelings about Bengaluru get stirred up, as an influential person talks about things nice and nasty about the city in this weekly column