How Bangalore benefits from CDP

How Bangalore benefits from CDP
The Times of India

Bangalore: Just what is the draft masterplan 2015’s agenda for Bangalore?

Those who have studied the masterplan find this question the most relevant because according to them, the plan attempts the impossible: create some order out of the city’s existing chaos.

The recommendations are proof of the plan’s ambitions: not only does it aim to open up the ‘eastern half ’ of the existing green belt for ‘restricted’ development, it also wants to protect tanks in that area. Roughly 25 tanks, including Biderehallikere, Kondaspurkere, Voonarikere, Horamavu-Agarakere and others, fall in this eastern part.

But as the masterplan proposes to boost industrial development in certain parts, without proper effluent treatment mechanisms, the tanks are doomed.

Similarly, the draft masterplan ‘protects’ Tippagondanahalli (T.G. Halli) catchment and Bannerghatta National Park, but environmentalists point out there already exist dye units, textile units and granite polishing factories in the T.G. Halli catchment. “So, what kind of protection is this going to be,’’ they want to know.

Landuse: Another confusing aspect refers to landuse patterns, which are the most avidly studied portions of the draft. There are zones proposed for many things: to promote a central business district, protect the historic core ‘petta’ area, encourage commercial development along radiating roads, redevelop industrial lands, provide 3.75 lakh new jobs by earmarking land for software, electronics and telecommunications and allow ‘mixed’ landuse within existing housing areas.

But BDA itself admits that it does not have the wherewithal to ensure that changes in landuse are properly adhered to.
Transport: The draft masterplan aims to set up an integrated system of transport — a mass public transport system, a commuting railway system, multi-articulated dedicated bus lanes along the main axes and a new Core Ring Road alongside the existing Intermediate Ring Road and Outer Ring Road and the proposed Peripheral Road.

But won’t developing such systems involve land acquisition? And doesn’t that, in turn, lead to litigations as in the case of BDA’s own Arkavathy and Hi-Tech city projects? BDA commissioner M.N. Vidyashankar thinks not. “We have taken inputs from every stakeholder. And once the public display is over, we will revert to them with the suggestions.’’ He insisted that the transport systems outlined in the masterplan are workable.

Population estimates: But perhaps the most crucial aspect of the draft pertains to population estimates. The plan projects a population of 8.84 million by 2015, but Bangalore is already bursting at the seams with over 6.5 million people. And it also home to a huge population of migrant labourers. BDA town planning officials, however, scoff at this.

“According to the 2001 census, the city has an annual growth rate of 3.5 per cent and migration rate of 4-5 per cent,’’ they said. They did not know if the statistics take into account the landless labourers in the city.

Day 2 draws more crowds
Bangalore: The public response on Day 2 of the draft masterplan display was even more massive than that on the first day.

Some 7,800 people turned up on Tuesday to examine the layout maps and documents displayed at Yavanika on Nrupathunga Road. “On Monday, there were 6,200 people,’’ BDA commissioner M.N. Vidyashankar said.

On Day 1, most visitors were landowners who wanted to know if they could sell land in the green belt. “On Tuesday, we had people with genuine queries. In fact, nearly 500-600 questions were about changes in land use — from commercial to residential, industrial to commercial and industrial to residential. But so far, we have not got back any of our feedback forms,’’ he said.

BDA expects more people to turn up in the next couple of days. Sources said its English and Kannada brochures have already been exhausted and fresh print orders issued.