A greater Bangalore in the making

A greater Bangalore in the making
This move will be good for the localities around the city as it means civic infrastructure and planned development, writes R Jayaprakash
The Times of India


The move to create the largest civic body in the country - Greater Bangalore - has brought more than a cheer to around 30 crore people who are reeling under inadequate infrastructure for several years now. The IT-driven phenomenal development of this ever-changing dynamic city had taken a back seat with the infrastructure problems.
In the last few years, the growth chart of real estate development in the peripheral areas of the city saw a sharp increase. However, on the infrastructure front, there was a mismatch as these areas had succumbed to the growing pains. Absence of proper roads, power supply, water supply and sanitation had crippled growth. The growth of suburbs makes for a fitting case study of sheer opulence and lack of infrastructure. The International Tech Park, Electronic City, super specialty hospitals, world-class educational institutions, hiend apartment complexes, shopping malls, multiplexes and sprawling layouts boasting choicest of bungalows on one hand, and poor civic infrastructure on the other. What were once villages now play host to a world of techies, massive glass facades and a virtual little world.
The decision to create Greater Bangalore was mooted almost a decade ago and now with the state taking up proposal on a war footing has virtually breathed life into these areas. When Greater Bangalore Authority becomes reality, 696 sqkm of land would be added to the existing 230 sqkm under the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC). The fact that the suburbs are in development will be a realisation in the immediate future. Bangalore is all set to take its long-neglected cousins on the outskirts - the seven city municipal councils and one town municipal council - into its fold.
Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner, M K Shankaralinge Gowda says, "this initiative will go a long way in making brand Bangalore go global and it was high time this authority was created especially with the kind of haphazard growth we are witnessing in the suburbs. The BDA will continue to be the planning authority for the new body and make concerted efforts to put in place the muchneeded infrastructure and take Bangalore forward".
This move will be good for Bangalore as 50 percent of migrants to the city live in these areas and the others have moved here because of skyrocketing real estate prices in the central parts. The major sectors where an infrastructure gap has been perceived and assessed in the CMCs are water and wastewater, storm water drain network, solid waste management, road network, urban transport and environment management.
This move will substantiate the case of Bangalore as the number one city for good living in India as stated by a recent report published by Indicus Analytics.
Centralising the administration work of the seven CMCs - Bommanahalli, Byatarayanapura, Yelahanka, Dasarahalli, Pattangere, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, K R Puram, and the Kengeri TMC is mammoth task. While it there are reports that there are moves to merge the seven CMCs, one TMC and panchayats around Bangalore with BCC, the modalities are being worked out in a fast pace under a high-level committee headed by the Chief Minister's Principal Secretary Sudhakar Rao.
With the elections to the BCC council put off as the new bill is in the offing and delimitation of constituencies is under process, funding (revenue and expenditure), execution and elections charters, guidelines, and rules and regulations are under consideration for the merger.