Vertical Bangalore?

Vertical Bangalore? Experts not sure & debate goes on...
Times of India

Bangalore: Should Bangalore go higher? With the city’s population as well as business bursting at the seams, urban planners and real estate developers are beginning to believe that the city would do well to go the Shanghai-Hong Kong way.

But many also warn that vertical growth must be accompanied by thorough infrastructure planning, if Bangalore is not to become messier than it is.

Jean-Philippe Lestang of SCE-Creocean India, a French organisation helping to put together a new development plan for Bangalore, says it makes great economic and social sense to keep a city compact, if necessary by going higher. “Bangalore is becoming an urban sprawl, with the focus on promoting large layouts on the city periphery. Instead, if the focus were on improving the main city and making it more dense, not only would it be far more cost effective to provide infrastructure and public transport services, it would also involve a great deal less commuting for citizens,” says Lestang.

Shanghai has, according to one estimate, some 3,000 high-rises of more than 24 storeys, many of them with 70 to 100 storeys or more. In Bangalore, the only buildings that may count in this category are the Public Utility Building (26 storeys) and the recently announced Lakeside Habitat project of the Beary Group with 24 storeys.

Ravi Puravankara, managing director of Puravankara Properties, notes that cities are growing vertically throughout the world. “But in Bangalore, residential buildings cannot rise more than 20 storeys, and sanctions for taller commercial buildings are not given.”

Lestang compares Atlanta in US and Barcelona, Spain, to illustrate the benefits of a compact city. Both cities have a similar population (about 2.5 million in 1990), but Atlanta has a built-up area of 4,280 sq km and Barcelona a mere 162 sq km. In Atlanta, the longest possible distance is 137 km; in Barcelona it is only 37 km. “Barcelona is the ultimate city — an urban planner’s dream.”

However, any attempt to increase the density of Bangalore must necessarily be accompanied by wider roads and better infrastructure.

And many question the city administration’s ability to ensure that. Sobha Developers managing director J.C. Sharma says the city shouldn’t try to grow vertically until its management has total control over all deliverables. “There is no coordination among different agencies. Lestang assumes the state government can get its agencies to go as per his plan. But the fact is, it can’t,” Sharma says.

Palamadai M. Rajagopalan, CEO of property development facilitating company One Source, says the city could make a beginning by relaxing restrictions in areas of low density and relatively good infrastructure.

And the debate goes on.

POINTS TO PONDER


The focus in Bangalore is on promoting large layouts on the city periphery. Instead, focus must be on improving the main city and making it more dense.
Shanghai has 3,000 highrises of more than 24 storeys (many 70-100 storeys or more). In Bangalore, only 2 buildings falls in this category.

Residential buildings cannot raise beyond 20 storeys in Bangalore. Sanctions for taller commercial buildings are not given.

The biggest stumbling block: increase in density of Bangalore must be accompanied by wider roads and better infrastructure. But can the city administration do that?


I don't see why there should be a debate at all. Vertical growth would work only if you have the transport infrastructure in terms of a mass rapid transit system. In the absence of that, our roads simply cannot take on the increased volume of traffic due to increase in population density. The experts solution will be to stack several roads vertically as well. Horizontal spread is the way to grow for a city like Bangalore