Planners gird up for megacity status

Planners gird up for megacity status
The Times of India

Bangalore: From an overgrown metropolis, namma Bengalooru will soon turn into a global megapolis — a la Paris and New York. A tripartite agreement, as envisaged by the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) between the central government, state government and urban local bodies, is likely to be signed in a month.

Once done, seven identified mega-cities — Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai — will get a facelift with a primary accent on infrastructure overhaul.

However, the urban local bodies are still in the dark about certain mandatory guidelines that the Centre should issue for them to frame a draft on major projects in the city. For any city eligible under the NURM, it has to enter into a tripartite agreement with the Centre, state and urban local body.

The Rs 5,500-crore NURM project has an allocation of Rs 3,500 crore towards National Mission Urban Infrastructure Development, under which the mega-city programme falls.

For state governments, the mission translates into mandatory reforms like decentralisation (implementing 74th Constitutional amendment), land reforms (repeal Urban Land Ceiling Reform Act, rationalise stamp duties to 5 per cent over five years), public disclosure law on medium-term fiscal plan.

For urban local bodies, the reforms read: accrual accounting, transfer of special agencies, property tax administration, MIS and GIS.
Bangalore’s vantage position: In this exercise, it’s advantage Bangalore, say authorities. An agency, Urban First, has been invested with the responsibility of preparing the City Development Strategy Plan.

Explains P K Srihari, additional commissioner (finance) at BCC: “The reform parameters that NURM envisages are based on Bangalore’s best practices. The entrusted agency has a lot of academic work — planning reforms to what the city would be 10 years hence. They map the gap between now and the future.’’

Bangalore is on an upper perch as it has many of the optional reforms in place — like computerisation of land titles, bylaws for rainwater harvesting, Geographical Information System (GIS), Management Information System (MIS) and accrual accounting. Just like BDA’s comprehensive development plan, the city development strategy plan seeks to identify status quo and civic growth.

For Bangalore, striking that tripartite deal matters where it’s needed most... well-asphalted four- and sixlane roads, flyovers, sewerage, single planning authority, traffic management...