If there is any one Indian city that is spoken of quite a bit today, it is Bengaluru. For many reasons, really. Some good, some bad, and some ugly.
Bengaluru is a buzz, both in the media and off it. This Bengaluru talk exists both in the cocktail and corporate circuits of the country, as it does at the ground level among those who really live, thrive, suffer and bear through the city and what it has to offer today. The city, like any other, has two manifestations. One is an image in the minds of those who don’t live in the city, and the other is what people there think of it. Sadly, both these images merge and seem to concur. This megacity of our day is in shambles today.
Let me define the city for a start. The quiet “Pensioner’s paradise” of yore, which used to have “TO LET” boards in front of homes desperate to be rented, is today a buzzing megacity that has galloped beyond the wildest imagination of its planners.
The megacity of 741 sq. km is today outrun in its geography by more than ten times. The city is now a tarantula that has spread its tentacles, grabbing space both horizontally and vertically. And it is certainly caught in a web. Of its own making.
Bengaluru is India’s third most populous city, with an estimated 13 million people. Add another million who come in and go out of it every day, and you have a city that is alive, buzzing, thriving and today crying.
The city is in the limelight. Everyone wants to have a piece of Bengaluru in their business plan. This is a high-net-worth urban agglomeration. The last track of Metro GDP (PPP) stood at USD 110 billion. The city generates a robust number in terms of direct taxes, is dubbed to be a “fiery consumption market” by most marketers, and is considered cutting-edge (if not bleeding-edge) in terms of the kinds of technologies that rule the roost in its tech hubs.
On the softer side, then, the city has a totally enviable weather pattern. Every time the temperature hits the hot button, the Bengaluru thermostat kicks in, and there is rain. Even as I write this, the city has just skipped a whole summer, much to the salivating jealousy of everyone in every other hot Indian city.
The city is considered diverse, secular and non-jingoistic in every way, whether in terms of food, dressing style, music, language, religion and more. The Kannadiga is a peaceful person, inclusive, and embraces all without bias or negative fervour.
This combination has worked. The city provides an ecosystem of comfort for businesses of every kind and people from all over India and the world. The city boasts of a huge expatriate community with food hubs that have emerged to cater to very specific tastes, be it Korean, Japanese or Mandarin. There is something in Bengaluru for everyone, never mind where you come from. To an extent, Bengaluru boasts the largest menu of living and thriving options any Indian city can offer. No wonder the city is dubbed the Startup capital of India, with its thriving idea-hubs that meet equally thriving funding houses waiting for those big ideas to fund, gestate and bring to fruition.
As Bengaluru booms in so many positive ways, it moves to the point of a negative bust in as many ways. The city is stressed. The big city has its big problems. The biggest one of them is the traffic the city hosts. The current population of 104 lakh vehicles in the city needs to find its way literally every day across a stretch of congested roads that just can’t take it. Add to it the fact that the city is in a work-in-progress mode for the last three years, putting drainage and roads and footpaths together. City roads are undeniably the worst you can use in any Indian city. And every rain worsens it more. Add the fact that the very many bodies that coordinate city efforts, such as the BBMP, the BWSSB, the BESCOM (and more) don’t really talk to one another as much as they must. Add the fact that there is a population boom. Add the fact that the band-aid solution is the one that is applied first and forever whenever there is a problem to solve. I can go on adding much more but will stop here for now.
The key point to remember is that the city has grown far beyond its imagination and ability to manage its growth. Politely put, Bengaluru remains a city where its software is world-class and its hardware belongs to the past. A very distant past. In terms of software, Bengaluru is the intellectual capital of India, but in terms of sheer infrastructure and the will shown to manage it, it is completely pathetic. Citizens who live in it often do wonder whether everyone has given up on Bengaluru.
And that very thought and question must rouse us to action. One cannot give up on Bengaluru. One must own it and drive change. There are two types of people who possibly live in any city. One lives there to make the best out of it. The other lives there to make it the best it can be. Those who own the city fall in the latter category. It is time to mobilise positive intent to get Bengaluru back on the rails. A derailed city is good for no one in the long term.
Is there a solution I would like to offer after this long rant? Maybe yes. You just might not like it. But let me say it out loud. The biggest radical solution that can sort Bengaluru and its myriad problems out in a flat three years does exist. Make Bengaluru a Special Urban Territory by statute, under the governance ambit of the Government of Karnataka.
Get the attention of the best local, national and global administrative minds to plan, solve, implement and evaluate the burning issues of the day on a war footing. Give this entity the power to implement the will of the people. Create a citizen audit structure to evaluate it all. Allow this to flourish for a while—possibly a couple of decades. And see how this city blossoms.
Tough and enduring problems need tough solutions. The Special Urban Territory of Bengaluru is one such.
Harish Bijoor
Brand Guru & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)