Bangalore structural plan is ready, but has no takers

Bangalore structural plan is ready, but has no takers
The Times of India

Bangalore: Even as the authorities are waking to the need for integrated planning of India’s fast-growing IT city, a notified structural plan for the entire Bangalore urban and rural districts is already in place.

The 20-year detailed structural plan for the 8,700 square feet region, drawn by British consultants GHQ and the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), was notified by the coalition government on September 21. The plan restricts the number of hectares Bangalore can afford to give for development in each direction and demarcates specific zones for development.

“The intention is the city should not hit the kind of urban infrastructure mess that it is facing today, due to rains. So, growth potential and factors — river paths, lake beds, rocky area, vegetable growing area — have been clearly demarcated,’’ Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA) sources told The Times of India.

The plan has identified huge potential for growth along Tumkur Road, Mysore Road and Magadi Road. Kanakapura Road and Bannerghatta Road, though, are to be preserved as they are, as they form river catchment areas.

The sad part is: The plan has not saved Hosur Road. The structural plan was drawn up in 1998, but notified only now. So, though all the ground data was available and zones neatly marked out, Bangalore arbitrarily grew in every direction, throwing huge chunks of this plan into the wind.

The plan document says in 1998 itself: “Hosur Road is getting overly industrialised. This will lead to future traffic problems. Only 100 hectares should be allotted to industries in this direction.’’

But this directive was ignored. The government-owned KIADB itself has already alloted 173 hectares to IT alone, along Hosur Road, while the private sector bought up agriculture land on its own, converted land use through revenue department and set up endless industries.

“This happened because people heading other planning agencies like BDA and the KIADB had an ego hassle in taking directions from the BMRDA’s plan. Due to this, there is no place now for water to flow out, no rocks and valleys into which it could have gone,’’ officials said.

Still, the good news: Despite violations, the plan serves as a road map for the areas that are still to be tapped for growth. “If planning is centralised now and this 20-year structural plan is implemented properly, Bangalore can still come out of the mess it is in. The surrounding areas will also benefit from this,’’ officials added.