Roads, drains get priority in BMP's mega plan

Roads, drains get priority in BMP's mega plan

The Hindu

Comprehensive Development Strategy Plan for city released

# Rs. 10,779 crores required for infrastructure development
# Rs. 4,071 crores to be spent on improvement of roads
# Utility services to be integrated

BANGALORE: Improvement of roads, storm water drains and other civic amenities in Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) area, seven city municipal councils (CMC) and a town municipal council (TMC) forms the focus of the City Development Strategy Plan (CDSP) prepared by the BMP.

The palike will submit the CDSP to the Centre for implementation under the proposed National Urban Renewal Mission for developing seven mega cities, including Bangalore.

Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh released the CDSP at a function held on Monday.

This plan, prepared by taking services of UrbanFirst Services, focuses on identifying the gap in the infrastructure in Greater Bangalore, which includes the BMP, the seven CMCs and the TMC.

Then it assesses the investments required for the next seven years for providing services to acceptable levels.

It is on the basis of the CDSP that the Centre will sanction funds under the National Urban Renewal Mission.

The State Government has become the first to release the CDSP.

The CDSP has proposed an investment of Rs. 10,779 crores for bridging the infrastructure gap.

This includes Rs. 4,071 crores for roads; Rs. 3,000 crores for urban transport; Rs. 1,780 crores for water and wastewater; Rs. 1,084 crores for storm water drain network, Rs. 337 crores for information infrastructure, Rs. 288 crores for solid waste management and Rs. 219 crores for environment management.

The CDSP has made a list of challenges and roadblocks affecting the development of the city. This includes the lack of accountability among service providers, policy makers and users; low accountability to urban local bodies; lack of professional managers; overlaps in roles and responsibilities; lack of competition; and lack of integrated planning process. Among the recommendations of the CDSP are unifying the citizen delivery responsibility and accountability to the BMP by integrating services such as water, wastewater, storm water drain, solid waste management, traffic management and urban transport.

The other recommendations include integration of seven city municipal councils and the town municipal council in Greater Bangalore Urban Authority; creation of an authority at the city level for development, including land use and zoning; greater autonomy to the BMP in revenue management, budgeting, and human resource management; and formalising citizen participation while formulating policy changes, budgeting and grievance redressal system.