LOL: CM dreams of metropolitan city

CM dreams of metropolitan city

Deccan Herald

Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said his government was making efforts to gain ‘metropolitan city’ status for Bangalore by trying to bring a perfect coordination among various civic agencies.

Speaking at a function organised by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike on Thursday to mark the inauguration of completed development projects worth Rs 162 crore and the intended projects worth Rs 195 crore, Mr Singh exhorted the top-brass of the civic agencies to work towards the realisation of the goal.
“Bangalore is a cosmopolitan City, we have to work towards making it a metropolitan city. For this, there must be a perfect coordination between agencies like the Bangalore Development Authority, the BMP and the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board,” Mr Singh said and added, “We have already communicated to the Union Government on the need for declaring Bangalore as a metropolitan city.” However, he remained mum on the possibility of reviving the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), which had earlier donned the mantle of a coordinator.

Mr Singh said his government was also trying to improve Bangalore’s infrastructure, which the IT industry thought was going from bad to worse. “Roads are not just bad in Bangalore, but even in my own constituency (Jewargi). The reasons for the bad condition of roads are many, one being the movement of heavy vehicles. We are giving an ear to the complaints and are working towards solving them. In Bangalore City, we have started acting by giving road maintenance contracts to private agencies,” he said.

He called upon the Mayor and BMP Commissioner to interact with the people and brief the latter about various development works that have been undertaken and completed. Such an exercise, he said, will also increase the BMP’s revenue collections.

Mr Singh also said his government was thinking of increasing the budgetary allocation to the BMP.


COMPLETED
*Water supply and drainage project in new wards (Rs 146 crore)
*Car parking lot on J C Road (Rs 5.85 crore)
*Concrete roads in Kalasipalya (Rs 5 crore)
*Development of Yediyur lake (Rs 3.24 crore)
*Electrical crematorium at Bommanahalli (Rs 2.16 crore)

INITIATED
*Remodelling of Koramangala Valley (Rs 100 crore)
*Construction of flyover at South End Circle (Rs 15 crore)
*Reconstruction of Shivajinagar stadium (Rs 5.5 crore)
*New BEL Road bridge (Rs 80 lakh)
*Sub-way near Vijayanagar bus station (Rs 53 lakh)