When will Bang become Shang? Wait & watch

When will Bang become Shang? Wait & watch
Lessons From Shanghai: Planned Growth, Good Infrastructure,Traffic Discipline
The Times of India

Shanghai: China took 15 years to rebuild its entire infrastructure. Bangalore took almost the same time to get a nod for its international airport! That says it all. After Singapore, politicians now talk of turning Bangalore into a Shanghai. How long will a creaking and crumbling Bangalore take to become a gleaming and blooming Shanghai?

There is too much of a gap in the tale of the two cities. Like ying and yan. China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, has little competition even from some of the big Indian cities. There is a sense of awesomeness in almost everything in Shanghai: the buildings are tall, and the eight-lane roads with ample pavement space are a dream.

Vehicles zip all over the city with no signs of traffic jams. Even when traffic is slow moving, there is no madness on the street. Every driver sticks to his lane. A far cry from a Bangalorean who is waiting to jump his lane and even dares to drive his bike on the pavement. It’s not as if Shanghai doesn’t have traffic problems. The vehicle population has been growing at a rapid pace. In 2000, Shanghai had 1 million vehicles on its roads. By 2003, this had grown to 1.4 million and current figure is estimated to be close to 2 million. But the big difference is Shanghai has not let the issue go out of control.


There is a sincere effort to ease the traffic on the roads. Ring roads are being built at regular intervals in the main city area and the locals are aware that they would have to prepare for a relocation in the event of further growth. That’s probably the biggest challenge for Bangalore authorities where a 10-foot-road widening is met with stiff opposition from the public. In Shanghai, the task is much more easier. In the last seven years, more than 80,000 households have been relocated from city centre to outer areas.

It probably needs a mammoth effort for Bangalore to catch up with Shanghai. More importantly, it needs a strong political will. Roads and flyovers have been built in Shanghai with a strong commitment to deadline. In Bangalore, projects take years to move from the planning to implementation stage.

Not just that. Flyovers built just a couple of years ago are already choking under growing vehicular population. Naturally, this leads to traffic jams. A drive to Bangalore airport is a nightmare. It needs two hours to travel to the airport even if it is 15 km away from home. However, in Shanghai, it takes just 8 minutes to reach an airport which is a good 30-40 km away from home, thanks to Maglev, a magnetic train built at a cost of $1 billion. The train is proving to be the world’s envy.

No wonder Shanghai is glorying in its highways and high-rise buildings while Bangalore, which has the potential, is becoming increasingly unruly in its growth. Bangalore is barely planning for the here and now while Shanghai is planning for the next decade.