BMP spins more yarns

BCC plans more infrastructure projects
R Jayaprakash outlines the infrastructure and development projects prominent in this year's BCC budget
The Times of India


The recently-presented Rs 1,569 crores BCC budget for the year 2005-06 stresses on infrastructure projects along with re-allocation of funds for the ongoing and citizencentric projects. The city's Mayor R Narayanaswamy says, "this budget has been drafted keeping in mind importance of ward works, conservation of environment, projects for improvement of traffic management, complete all pending projects, and initiatives for projects in the future". Needless to say, the BCC has taken a holistic view of the requirements of the city while drafting this budget.

Here are some highlights:

Infrastructure projects
The ongoing projects involving lakes, footpaths, playgrounds, public toilets, parks and crematoria got a mention in the budget presentation and it was stated that works involving these would be fully supported. Also, Pottery Town playground, Jayanagar Boulevard, Shivajinagar Playground, Ambedkar Stadium III Phase and Rajiv Gandhi Multipurpose Sports Complex will be taken up this year.

Coming to putting in place the much needed road infrastructure, the BCC has divided the city into three corridors for a comprehensive solution - south, west and east under the three zones of the BCC.

South Corridor: Under the South Corridor the BCC has planned a six-lane road from Sirsi Circle to Bangalore University and a feasibility report is awaited. Apart from this, grade separators and flyovers are planned at South End Circle, Minerva Circle, Kanakapura Ring Road junction, Kittur Rani Chennamma Circle, RV Teachers College, Ramakrishna Ashram, Tagore Circle, and Mission Road. While the National College flyover is nearing completion tenders have been called for Minerva and South-End Circle flyovers.

West Corridor: Under this corridor, grade separators and flyovers have been proposed at MES Road (Ring Road/railway station), Peenya Dasarahalli, Yeswanthpur, and Malleswaram. Some projects that could not take off or were not completed last year will be taken up and completed this year including Modi Road-Chord Road junction, Rajajinagar Entrance, and Vijaynagar-Magadi Road junction.

East Corridor: While a host of projects were given the green signal in other corridors, East Corridor has only two to mention - Trinity Circle and Balekundri Circle.

Roads
The BCC this time has allocated Rs 103 crores for asphalting of major roads in the city excluding asphalting of zonal roads, which includes development of road under World Bank assistance.

Subways and skywalks:

Rs 4.52 crores has been earmarked for making subways and skywalks in different parts of the city. Town Hall junction, Chord Road, BCC Head Office, KR Circle, City Market, Frazer Town, Palace Road, Vijaynagar Bus Stand, Rajajinagar Vidya Vardhaka School, ISKCON Temple, Devaiah Park, Bapuji Nagar, Peenya Ist Phase are locations earmarked for skywalks and subways.

RUB/ROB: The BCC in partnership with the railway authorities will take up roadunder-bridges and road-overbridges at Bapuji Nagar, Byappanahalli, Gangodanahalli, Frazer Town Phase II, Khoday Circle, Mathikere, Srirampura, Nagavara, Sampige Road, and ITC Factory. An amount of Rs 9.5 crores has been reserved for this purpose.
Storm water drains

While tenders have been called for two remodeling of drains projects including Koramangala and Hebbal valleys, detailed project reports for Vrishabhavati and Chellaghatta Valleys have been completed.

Since the project involves huge costs running upto hundreds of crores of rupees, grants and soft loans are being sought by the BCC from foreign and local funding agencies. While that would take some time, Rs 35 crores has been reserved by the BCC in this budget for the first phase of work which will commence shortly.

Citizen service centres

The BCC citizen service centres were a big hit and were hailed as a step towards transparency and paperless work. Taking this forward, is this budget, it has provided Rs 1 crore for opening four more such centres in different zones of the city.

Also, Rs 1 crore has been given towards computarisaton of building plan sanctions.

Revenue collection

The BCC's Revenue Department will now get a shot in the arm as implementation of GIS (global information system) features in the priority list. The move is to plug the leakages in the collection system and enhance the revenue. Says the Mayor, "BCC's revenue has gone up by Rs 30 crores this year. The Corporation could collect Rs 195 crores in taxes in 2002, Rs 200 crores in 2003, and Rs 230 crores in 2004. Once the GIS is in, the tax collections will grow by 20 percent".
Go green

The BCC has so far developed 252 of the 491 parks in the city under the Janodyanavana scheme. This year the budget for developing parks under the scheme has been increased to Rs 24 crores from Rs 6 crores last year. Under the scheme, 200 parks will be developed. Also, The Freedom Park project at the former central jail has been given a further push with an allocation of Rs 2 crores.

Solid waste management
In the wake of the government's order on scientific landfills for solid waste, the BCC has provided Rs 4 crores for development of landfills, Rs 1 crore for laying roads to dumping yards situated outside the city, and Rs 2 crores for procurement of vehicles.