Five sutras for a better city

Five sutras for a better city
BBMP commissioner S Subramanya shares his views on the solutions for Bangalore


From the administration point of view, three issues plague the BBMP — opaqueness, collusion and corruption. These have inflicted problems on enforcement and development, in the effective implementation of programmes. The solution is to usher in transparency by reducing the response time and increasing citizen interface. After all, monitoring brings order.
I have categorized solutions into five areas: introduction of Contact Points, addressing traffic de-congestion, mobilizing resources effectively, enforcement in true spirit and health & education.
1 BBMP Contact Points: We are setting up 250 Contact Points for looking into problems of 4,000 houses. This is to reduce response time to real time, fix responsibility on individual officers and bring about transparency in our operations. Resident welfare associations can interact with Contact Points and get their problems redressed. Each Contact Point will have four officers — a revenue officer, enforcement officer, green officer and an administrative officer. While the revenue officer will look into property tax, issuing khatha, etc., the enforcement officer will look after garbage clearance, streetlights, road maintenance and even put a check on unauthorised construction or deviations from building byelaws. The green officer will be in charge of parks, greening programmes, pruning of tree branches, etc., and the administrative officer will take care of administration, advertisements, hearse services, health centres and trade norms.
We will also set up a 24-hour call centre to receive complaints which will be passed on to jurisdictional Contact Points. The person at the call centre will follow up with the officer and get back to the complainant on the status of the issue. Officers at the Contact Points will be given Ham sets. They will also have to capture on video all roads and houses in their jurisdiction.
2 Traffic decongestion: There are 35,000 traffic intersections in the city. For some reason, we have the highest number of one-ways and this has led to bunching of traffic in more than 800 intersections. Flyovers and underpasses, the few that can be built, can only shift the bottlenecks. Where do we have money to put up expensive infrastructure projects? In effect we will need Rs 20,000 crore to clear the bunching of traffic.
So, we have hit upon a novel idea of setting up modular underpasses, which cost just one-tenth of the actual cost of conventional underpasses, and take just a few days to set up, cutting down time by a year or two. A pilot project is under way where we have placed pre-cast elements, which act as readymade underpasses. Soon you’ll see underpasses in place overnight and traffic signals will be out of action on major junctions.
We have prepared a comprehensive parking policy. Removing of surface parking in central areas, constructing multi-storeyed car parking in 40 places, removing commercial establishments if any in basements post 1996 are some measures. That apart, we have formed teams to identify parking plots every 500m of arterial roads. We will promote parking on vacant plots and provide exemption of property tax to a certain extent. If a developer gives away one floor for parking in his complex to BBMP, he will get additional FAR vis-a-vis Mumbai byelaws. 3 Resource mobilization: I’m working out ways and means of mobilizing resources. As per our records there are 6 lakh properties in Bangalore (including the new areas) which are under assessment. While GPS (Global Positioning System) shows there are 14 lakh properties, power connections provided to buildings reveal that there are over 24 lakh properties. We are collating information to arrive at accurate data.
We have also formed a team to collect tax under high value buildings. Our rough estimate is that there are over 2,000 such buildings. Even if each owner pays tax under this provision we will be able to garner around Rs 2,000 crore, which is our budget outlay. I’m looking at effective collection in the existing framework. There are hundreds of properties, which have to be brought under assessment, for example private educational institutions, hostels, PGs that have been left out of tax net. Besides, non-tax revenues like collection of fees for various services and sanctions have to be broadened and tightened.
4 Enforcement: Policies are bound to fail if programmes are not enforced in the right way. One such measure is introduction of litter cops, who will ensure there is no littering by slapping fine for breach of civic laws. Instead of taking up everything and ending up doing nothing, I believe in taking up issues at the grassroots level and addressing them methodically. For example, flooding in Puttenahalli happened because of encroachments over drains. We are relaying the drain network in the whole locality. Next we will take up road work there. The same with Mysore Road or Badrappa Layout or Hosur Road.
5 Health & education: Though these are prime functions of municipal bodies, our contribution has been abysmal. The BBMP will soon form a Public Heath Board, which will have as advisers, the cream of Bangalore’s doctors. We will open clinics apart from primary health centres and facilitate quality medical attention to the needy. The same approach will be adopted for education.
(As told to R Jayaprakash)
READERS’ MAIL
Discipline pedestrians and cyclists All the writers, apart from their suggestions, insist on road discipline. Any system will fail if there is no discipline. To make a beginning in this direction the authorities must discipline pedestrians and cyclists. Footpaths in the city are very wide, but are never used by the pedestrians. They are used either by hawkers or for parking cars and twowheelers. Measures should be taken to reduce the existing width of the footpaths — the space thus created should be converted into a cycle lane. Urge pedestrians to use footpaths and zebra crossings. Authorities should implement these measures seriously and achieve results within a span of two months. After this period, violators should be penalised with small fines. D Sekharan, BANGALORE
Inner Core Ring Road is the solution What happened to the Inner Core Ring Road (ICRR)? The quickest solution for easing Bangalore’s traffic problems is implementing this proposal of the BBMP. Since it would be constructed using steel rather than cement, it can be built quickly. Also, since it would be an elevated construction it won’t affect existing roads. More importantly, it runs through the core of the city which makes life easier for motorists. Though this project is expensive, it is totally worth the money as it can be completed within a year. I am not sure whether the people in Vidhana Soudha listen to these words, but I thank The Times of India for providing people the opportunity to express their opinions. Shashank, VIA E-MAIL

Bangalore should devise a licensing system to regulate personal vehicles on the roads, like Singapore, where one should ‘qualify’ to own a vehicle. Even as we believe in freedom of movement, we should safeguard our city. Private players should be invited to provide a mass transport system. Dependence on personal vehicles can reduce only with a strong public transport system. Short-sightedness in planning and implementing projects is taking its toll. Growing security threats call for a system of issuing identity cards or monitoring system for outsiders. We must include plans that boost the social and cultural character of the city in the Master Plan, and perhaps extend support to sectors like medical tourism. G S Krishna Murthy, FORMER GENERAL SECRETARY, HSR LAYOUT RESIDENTS’ WELFARE ASSOCIATIONS


The BBMP must accomplish five tasks — making the city slum free, decentralisation of basic functions, better solid waste management, constitution of ward committees and setting up of Metropolitan Planning Committee to prepare a fresh CDP for Greater Bangalore. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds should be used to make Bangalore slum-free, by prioritising water supply, sewerage and housing for slums, and affordable housing for migrants. Decentralising basic functions of garbage removal, grievance redressal, road maintenance etc. to the ward level, along with providing funds and employment through casual labour is necessary. The city must do away with manual handling of solid waste and practice segregation at source. Setting up a ward committee in every ward through direct election of members on non-party basis, holding tri-monthly interactions between citizens, officials and elected representatives should be focus areas. A Metropolitan Planning Committee to prepare fresh CDP for Bangalore from ward-level is needed. Kathyayini Chamaraj TRUSTEE, CIVIC BANGALORE