CM chants PPP mantra, to fast-track civic projects

CM chants PPP mantra, to fast-track civic projects
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: The PPP model, which proved to be a success in Bangalore some years ago, was mothballed by successive governments. But it got a fresh lease of life again.
On a cloudy Saturday morning at NIAS auditorium, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s vision at an interactive meeting was clear — you can no longer afford to leave everything to the government. The responsibility of building the city’s infrastructure and dreams of elevating the city to a worldclass destination cannot be fulfilled by the government alone. Private sector participation is also needed.
This was the new CM’s first faceto-face event with citizens at ongoing works and new projects were discussed at Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure Development 2008. In fact, this summit was the government’s heartening response to a recent campaign called Citizen Agenda of The Times of India. A host of projects were mooted by civic stakeholders, including traffic decongestion programmes, construction of elevated corridors, augmenting water supply and upgradation of electricity supply. Yeddyurappa assured accountability to the people.
To monitor projects promised in the meet, the CM announced setting up of a high-level committee comprising officials and experts who will take stock of the situation on a regular basis. Projects will be reviewed once in three months and a report card presented to the public once in four months. “Within a year, there will be visible progress in civic services and the infrastructure in Bangalore. I want to extend such review meets to other cities of the state,’’ Yeddyurappa said.
ROAD AHEAD
High-level panel to track infrastructure projects every quarter
A report card to be presented to the public once in four months.
C M ex - pects visible progress in a year Plans and promises CM Yeddyurappa’s Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure Development 2008 could be the beginning of change — a change that the state capital so desperately needs New TDR on anvil
Bangalore: After a lull, protests are gathering momentum over the acquisition of private properties under the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) scheme. The fresh row between residents and the BBMP started when the authorities started marking properties for acquisition to widen 45 roads.
Sensing a threat to the ambitious project, BBMP decided to modify the TDR scheme, which just gives additional FAR for land acquired. Now, authorities are mulling over the idea of giving a BDA site to land losers to be examined on a case-to-case basis.
“There is a lot of demand for TDR certificates by builders. I understand that someone residing in the house for a long time will naturally protest if a portion of the property is acquired. But this is necessary for the growth of Bangalore. We got very good response from people at Tannery Road who have given up their properties without any protests. However, TDR will be modified to create a win-win situation, for BBMP as well as property owners,’’ BBMP commissioner S Subramanya announced on Saturday at the review summit.
Further, commuters on inner ring road from Central Silk Board to Mysore road can have seamless travel as BBMP will provide signal-free access. For this, 17 grade separators will be built, of which work on four are in progress.
The high-speed rail link to BIA will be a reality, according to infrastructure development department MD V Madhu. The project, which will begin by mid-next year, will be completed in 2 years 9 months. About 231 trees will be cut all along the alignment, but many saplings will be planted to enhance the green cover. Each train will have six coaches and will run at a speed of 85-160 kms.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) has a host of schemes up its sleeves, according to Gaurav Gupta, who is in charge of it. The interesting ones are formalising car-pooling schemes and a study will be commissioned to ascertain what best works for the city. This apart, introduction of bicycle tracks at Jayanagar, Indiranagar, Rajajinagar, Basavanagudi, Koramangala, JP Nagar, etc. is planned.