'This city is losing its beauty'

'This city is losing its beauty'
Vijay Times

P ART from being the managing trustee of Grahak Shakti and co-chairperson of BMTC Commuter Advisory and Facilitation Committee, V K Somasekhar is also a member Commuter Comfort T ask force and Infrastructu T ask force of the Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry . Being passionate about the Ci spoke straight from the heart about his abode.

Bangalore was known for its beautiful garden parks and its climate apart from the wonder people who are homely . This has changed. T fastest growing City in the world has now extremely stressed due to tremendous growth it has totally changed the way the City used to lo W e have lost a lot of green cover and of lakes which the City once boasted of, only remnants of about 10 are e x i s t i n g , that too u n d e r s e v e r e threat. In view of s u d d e n changes in the last decade, our town planners have failed to perceive this and thereby chaos in traffic, housing and disorderly skyscrapers, buildings with violations in terms of safety and security is taking its toll.

While growth is appreciated, this sort of a boom in the IT -BT sector has upset peace loving and el erly citizens living in comfort. With frugal and savings they are not able to get the menial se ices that have gone up many folds. There has been an unexpected increase in services and the cost of living has gone up that too unexpectedly . habits, social fabric and even cultural valu collapsed.

Right now , we need to address the traffic lems and should take right decisions. Knee-j reaction and temporary solutions should be avoided. W e must address the situation with a approach and prepare for at least another decade i not more.

T o protect the environment, steps should be taken to plant more trees, save lakes and avoid po lution.

The Bangalore Development Authority needs to be empowered with proper statutes to ensure they are not litigation prone. They should be give a specific target to complete and the gover should not interfere in its progress. There is ne form more satellite townships.

Bangalore needs to build an integrated system of transportation with BMTC as the nodal agency for urban transportation and ensure a proper plan for the new metro , urban rail and any other f modes of transportation that may come up.

This will ensure that all transportation needs are properly structured and planned by one autho without much ado about the form of mass tr port system. This will also help the agency economise and cater to the needs of the ci Proper management of water is the need of hour .