Green belt area shrinks to 419.50 square km of Bangalore Metropolitan Area

Green belt area shrinks to 419.50 square km of Bangalore Metropolitan Area

Staff Reporter

State Government notifies Revised Master Plan 2015

55.94 sq. km of residential area has been opened up for mixed land usage
Commercial area stands at 34.6 sq. km and public and semi-public spaces at 39.13 sq. km

BANGALORE: It is official. The green belt area is down to 419.50 sq. km. and urbanisable area has gone up to 800 sq. km. in the 1219.5 sq. km. of Bangalore Metropolitan Area, the planning area of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

The State Government on June 26 issued a Government Order notifying the long-pending Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2015, more than three years after the BDA initiated the process of preparing it. The notified RMP has been modified to a minor extent after public and government suggestions were incorporated.
Residential area

As much as 55.94 sq. km of residential area has been opened up for mixed land usage, which means certain commercial activities would be allowed in these areas. About 42.3 per cent, that is 338.41 sq. km., has been earmarked as residential area, up from 243 sq. km earmarked in the Comprehensive Development Plan 1995.

Commercial area stands at 34.6 sq. km and public and semi-public spaces at 39.13 sq. km. Nearly 39.78 sq. km has been earmarked for industrial development and 47.25 sq. km. has been opened up for hi-tech industrial development, mostly between Mysore Road and Magadi Road.
Changes

Speaking to The Hindu on the changes from the draft master plan, M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda, BDA Commissioner, said: “In the notified RMP, about 3,500 acres have been opened up for industrial development in the southern and weste rn sectors of the city, in accordance with government suggestions. Earlier, in the draft master plan, only areas in the northern and eastern sector had been opened up for industrial development.” Further, he added,

“We have now retained the green belt area in the northern area which had been opened up for industrial development in the draft plan.”

On suggestion from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the BDA has earmarked buffer zones of 50 m, 25 m and 15 m respectively on either side of the primary, secondary and tertiary canals respectively in Vrishabhavati, Arkavathy, Bellandur and Hebbal valleys. The draft master plan had earmarked the entire region as buffer zone and therefore allowed no development, Mr. Gowda said.
Long-term development

Encapsulating the development process around the city and reasoning the approach adopted in the Master Plan, the Government Order states that the population is likely to be around 9.9 million in the year 2021.

“With the emergence of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor, the Bangalore International Airport, planned ring roads and satellite townships, urbanisation is no longer confined to the Bangalore Metropolitan Area and is expected to spread into the Bangalore Metropolitan Region,” the Government Order states.

The BDA enlisted the help of SCE, a French consultancy firm, and prepared a draft master plan which was placed for public objections on June 10, 2005.