City matters: How serious is govt?

City matters: How serious is govt?
The netas and the babus in the city love deadlines. Especially the swooshing sound they make as they pass by. Ordinary projects were invested with ambitious deadlines in September 2005, when the IT honchos took on the government for failing to provide something as basic as roads. By consensus, 45 per cent work has been done. And to review just this, chief minister Dharam Singh has called for yet another meeting on Tuesday.

The Times of India


Infrastructure problems: a flashback

Bangalore: Meetings and deadlines. This exercise has been done before. CM Dharam Singh had a series of meetings last year with various factions doling out promises. What has come of it?

For a backgrounder, on September 15, 2005, the sparring government and the IT honchos came face-to-face to hammer out a solution to the infrastructure problems plaguing the city. The outcome was the announcement of a three-phase package which mainly included upgradation of road network in major corridors of the city along with a host of traffic-related solutions. To get cracking, the government announced a lot of short-term projects with January deadline.

On its part, the industry announced that it would come out with a comprehensive proposal on infrastructure reforms, identify timebound projects and publish a white paper on these proposals for public awareness.

The government also made it clear that public-private participation would continue as the industry bigwigs would be roped in to design and implement long-term projects. It now seems like all is not well with the public-private partnership model.

Medium-term plan: Among the medium-term plans, the BDA has notified the first phase of land acquisition process for the peripheral ring road. The ring road with 8-10 lanes is already on the table with changed alignment. Work on the first phase will commence before June. The entire project will take six years for completion.

Medium-term plans were thrashed out to identify priorities. Subsequently, just after a week, the government and the IT captains met again for a meeting where the government set out its targets:

Airport Road flyover at Rs 34.90 crore; to be finally completed by August 2006; flyover near Jayadeva Hospital, Rs 20.12 crore, to be commissioned by June 2006; Ananda Rao circle flyover to be commissioned by year-end.

Hi-tech city: 997 acres to be acquired.

Magadi Road-Mysore Road ORR: May 2006.

5.8 km rehabilitation and augmentation of road between HAL and Kundalahalli cross to be completed by July 2006.

38 roads upgradation posed to the planning commission for assistance. However, bowing to the pressure from the IT honchos, the government relented and banned entry of trucks into the city for eight hours during morning and evening peak hours.

SHORT-TERM PLANS
Eight roads taken up for upgradation in the central business district. Status: Good progress on some arterial roads, yet to take up on some roads like M G Road-Trinity Circle, SJP Road, mid-way and behind schedule on Magrath Road, Jeevan Bima Nagar Upgradation of five roads falling in the Airport Road-Indiranagar Road corridor. Status: Work started well on schedule but lagged behind a bit. Augmentation of six roads along Hosur-Sarjapur-Koramangala-Madivala corridor. Status: The work started late.

MEDIUM-TERM PLANS

International airport. Peripheral ring road with 8-10 lanes. The project is already on the table and alignment has been worked out. Work is slated to commence soon and project to be commissioned in the next six years.

PROJECT PLAN
The long and short of it
These were the projects announced for Bangalore in the empowered committee meeting on September 15. Accordingly, a three-stage plan was put into action. Some of them were to be finished in January 2006 and later February. What’s done, what’s undone...

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PLANS
Remove parking on the road and accommodate vehicles in multilevel parking lots. Status: Parking banned on nine major roads. Prevention of BMTC buses from halting in the middle of the road; construction of bus-bays. Status: Over 40 bus-bays have been shifted.

LONG-TERM PLAN
The industries had displayed willingness to fund some of the projects. The government had agreed to identify the projects which will be implemented by it and some by the industries. A White Paper will also be brought out by the industries on the reforms necessary and also about their contributions.