Master Plan: An epitaph to a green Bangalore

Master Plan: An epitaph to a green Bangalore
By P M Raghunandan, Bangalore, DH News Service:
The total green belt area opened in the new Master Plan is 277 sq kms (68,419 acres) for development in the next 10 years. The green belt has been opened mainly in the west (between Mysore Road and Tumkur Road) and east (between Bellary Road and Hosur Road), BDA Commissioner Shankarlinge Gowda told Deccan Herald.

Bangaloreans can no longer call themselves the proud denizens of a “green” city.

Reason: The urbanisation has outgrown the green belt area in the Bangalore Metropolitan region.

As per the Master Plan 2015 of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) which was cleared by the State Cabinet on Friday, the green belt has shrunk to 455 sq kms (one sq km is equal to 247 acres), while the conurbation area (a predominantly urban region including adjacent towns and suburbs) has ballooned to 785 sq kms.

The total local planning area of BDA is 1,240 sq kms.

“The total green belt area opened in the new Master Plan is 277 sq kms (68,419 acres) for development in the next 10 years. The green belt has been opened mainly in the west (between Mysore Road and Tumkur Road) and east (between Bellary Road and Hosur Road),” BDA Commissioner Shankarlinge Gowda told Deccan Herald.

The Commissioner said Bangalore’s current population stood at 70 lakh, which was estimated to be reached by 2011 in the previous Master Plan.

At the current growth rate, which stands at 3.25 per cent annually, the City’s population is expected to touch 88 lakh by 2015.

“With the intention of providing space to meet the growing demands, we have proposed to relax the green belt area,” he pointed out.

According to the BDA’s 1995-2005 Master Plan, the total green belt area was much more than the conurbation area.

While the green belt area was 732 sq kms, the conurbation area was 508 sq kms. In fact, SEC Crocean, a French consultant company, which prepared the draft Master Plan 2015, had proposed an additional conurbation area of only 246 sq kms (60,762 acres of land) to meet the growing demand for land in Bangalore between 2005 and 2015.

But the government has modified the draft and opened up 277 sq kms (an additional of 31 sq kms), further eating into the green belt area.

Already developed
Worse still. Though 60,762 acres of green belt area has been opened up, the BDA will actually get just around 20,000 acres. “The major portion of the green belt opened up in eastern part has already been developed,” he added.

The Commissioner said the opening up of the green belt area in western and eastern parts is aimed at the vertical development of Bangalore.

The main idea is to balance the growth and, hence, almost all developmental activities in future will be taken up in western portion, which has so far remained under-developed compared to the City’s other regions.