`Bad traffic planning has made city infamous'

`Bad traffic planning has made city infamous'

The Hindu

Closed circuit televisions to be installed on certain roads

# Designated stands proposed for buses, taxis and autorickshaws
# BWSSB says groundwater withdrawal needs to be regulated
# BDA receives over 3,200 suggestions on Master Plan
# Government has not allotted the extent of land it has promised to the BMP for landfills

BANGALORE: Faulty land use will make traffic planning in the city difficult, Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh said on Tuesday.

"Bad traffic planning can make a city infamous and Bangalore has become one such city," said Mr. Singh, speaking at a panel discussion on the Master Plan 2015, organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Centre for Sustainable Development on the Master Plan 2015.

The Master Plan's proposal of offering apartment complexes the option of reserving parking spaces in lots at street corners instead of providing them in the apartment complex itself needs to be re-examined, he said. "The Master Plan cannot ask people to build apartment complexes by telling them we will find you parking space later."

He stressed that the Master Plan should incorporate bus stands and bus bays for private operators as well as designated stands for taxi and autorickshaws. "They are important means of public transport and can help decongest the city," he said.

To monitor traffic flow and prevent gridlocks, Mr. Singh said the traffic police are planning to introduce closed circuit television on certain roads shortly. A proposal in this regard has been sent to the Government.

S.K. Pattanayak, Chairman of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, said ground water withdrawal needed to be regulated. In the City Municipal Corporation most of the water demands were presently being met by borewells. "There is indiscriminate withdrawal of water in some places."

Of the 1350 million litres a day of water that is provided every day, leakages are to the extent of 35 per cent. The BWSSB, which studied leakages in certain domestic sectors as a pilot project, is planning to expand the study to the entire city, Mr. Pattanayak said.

M.N. Vidyashankar, Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority, said the BDA had received over 3,200 suggestions on the Master Plan from the public. Over 95 per cent of the suggestions reviewed by the P.S.S. Thomas Committee are on suggestions for individual site numbers, he said.

Shamim Banu, Principal Secretary of the Urban Development department, said the Government is planning to vest a single department with powers to oversee the working of the Master Plan and to regulate it.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner K. Jothiramalingam said the State Government has not allotted the extent of land it has promised to the BMP for setting up scientific landfills.

"Even after paying the Government for the land, we have not been able to get all the land," he said.

He said of the 269 acres of land in Mavallipura allotted to BMP by the Government, over 28 acres had been encroached upon. Of the 264 acres allotted to BMP in Mandur, he said the Forest Department had claimed 35 acres to be their own. " We now have to pay them Rs. 30 lakhs as compensatory afforestation charges."

Mr. Jothiramalingam said the scientific landfill being built at Mavallipura will be commissioned by next October and the "waste-to-energy" plant near Mandur would be commissioned in the next two years.

The Commissioner requested the BDA in developing future layouts to plan for a burial grounds in the layout itself. "We cannot be expected to cone up with the space later," he said.

At the meeting, several of the stake-holders complained over inadequate resources that were provided for them in the Master Plan.