Face it, satellite images show up urban sprawl

Face it, satellite images show up urban sprawl
The Times of India

Bangalore: Be it the re-alignment of the much-publicised Peripheral Ring Road project, developments in green belt area or blatant violation of Floor Area Ratio (FAR), Bangalore’s urban sprawl is not a pretty picture. And it’s confirmed by satellite images procured for the revised masterplan for Bangalore.

Over the last decade, there have been violations of the order of nearly 4.3 per cent in green belt area. This includes encroachment of water bodies, tanks beds and valleys.

According to BDA commissioner M.N. Vidyashankar, of the 742 sq km of green belt around Bangalore, 32 sq km area has been encroached upon and the majority of violations are illegal layouts. These are the findings of a survey by French consultants who drew up the new masterplan that projects the city’s growth till 2015, Vidyashankar added.

“Agriculture lands have been encroached upon and projects have come up without any regulation. Illegal layouts have sprung up in the green belt without any checks,’’ director of state town planning department V.M. Hegde said.

A clear example of unruly growth, according to Hegde, is the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR). Envisaged a decade ago, the revised CDP of 1995 had sketched nearly 80 km of the PRR alignment but when the project gained momentum, the ground reality was different.

Satellite images showed that 45 per cent of the old alignment stretch was built up and at some places, it was less than 1 km from the existing ring road. Hence, with the city’s growth, the alignment suggested by the CDP was found outdated. Now, BDA has frozen a new alignment which now runs into 108 km to be located between 2.8 km to 11.5 km from the existing ring road.

The figures of urbanisation are telling: In 1973, built-up area was 161 sq kms and by 2003, urbanisation in Greater Bangalore was 495 sq kms.

While the revised CDP of 1995 had projected urbanisation of the order of 590 sq km in 2011, the latest masterplan has projected that the growth would be additional 243 sq kms by 2015. “Residential development will definitely be shifted to the green belt. But regulated growth within the legal framework will prevent violations,’’ experts pointed out.

Further, the FAR, a tool for development control, is also not being used as per law. To cite an instance: in the areas coming under central business districts like Avenue Road, Chickpet and Akkipet, the FAR fixed is 0.75 but it has been overstretched to 6. FAR is fixed based on zone, sital value and road width. Currently, FAR is of the inverted model — lower FAR in the city centre and increased bandwidth in the periphery based on the quantum of development.

“The masterplan has proposed deployment of FAR in a flexible manner and has suggested up to 5. This means, higher FAR will be provided in the city centre which will also depend on the required parking area allocated in the site,’’ officials informed.

CRACKING THE WHIP
As an offshoot of the recent government order (GO) banning registration of properties on agricultural lands, the government is contemplating criminal proceedings against developers of unauthorised layouts. The BDA and BMRDA have identified several such layouts in green belt areas.

“The GO should be taken to a logical conclusion. The next step would be to punish the developers. Criminal
proceedings would be initiated against them along with a hefty fine,’’ sources said.

However, discussions are on to decide about the status of these illegal layouts, though regularisation is not on the government’s mind right now, sources added.