BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday announced several measures to ease Bengaluru’s traffic and improve its image.
Presenting the state budget, he said steps will be taken to strengthen the city’s public transport system, improve roads, address water and air pollution and digitise property records. Importance will be given to develop Bengaluru as a tourism hub.
Siddaramaiah said the property tax collection target will be increased, and advertisement and floor area ratio (FAR) policies revised. Shops and other business establishments will be allowed to remain open till 1am in Bengaluru and 10 other civic corporations.
“To make Bengaluru a world class city, the Brand Bengaluru concept and major reforms have been introduced,” the CM said and announced that the proposed tunnel road project (Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s proposal) will be taken up on a pilot basis in Hebbal. Justifying the need for the tunnel project, Siddaramaiah said it would be difficult to widen roads in Bengaluru due to scarcity of land and acquisition problems.
City to get all-weather roads
The CM said all-weather roads are being constructed at a cost of Rs 200 crore and an additional 100km will be done this fiscal. The long-pending Peripheral Ring Road project will be renamed as ‘Bengaluru Business Corridor’. A request for proposal has been invited for 73km at a cost of Rs 27,000 crore. Whitetopping of 1,747km of major roads at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore will be completed by December 2025.
Stressing the need to strengthen the city’s public transport system, he said by March 2025, 44km more will be added to the Metro line. For better management of traffic signals, artificial intelligence (AI) will be used. In all, 28 major traffic junctions will have Area Traffic Signal Control System. To mop up resources, the property tax collection target will be increased to Rs 6,000 crore this fiscal. This can be achieved if leaks are plugged and property records digitised. To raise non-tax resources of Rs 2,000 crore, advertisement and premium Floor Area Ratio policies will be revised, he said. To improve Bengaluru’s Swachh Bharat ranking and address the issue of garbage disposal, the city will be divided into four zones. Each zone will have an integrated waste management operator. To address air and water pollution, a separate policy will be formulated with a focus on increasing people’s participation in development of lakes and parks, Siddaramaiah said.
To improve Bengaluru’s image at the global level, a Science City will be set up at a cost of Rs 233 crore.