WHAT AN IDEA!

WHAT AN IDEA!
METRO SPECIAL: Sunday Times tracks four developmental projects across different sectors which have been so successful that other cities and states have replicated them


BANGALOREONE CENTRES
Integrated payment for services offered by various civic agencies. The idea that triggered the creation of 14 BangaloreOne centres, in April 2005, was a one-liner. Three years later, as the number stands at 40 (including 20 mini centres), the idea still grows in potential. The idea gained credence after payment for services at individual service providers’ premises sparked off residents’ complaints following operational hassles. With Bangalore emerging as a bustling IT centre, it was a given that e-governance would bridge the gap.
An initiative of the department of e-governance, the B-1 centres slowly got public acceptance. Offering payment facilities across agencies and services, including Bescom, BSNL and BWSSB and application for passports, the B-1 centres were conceptualized as a single-window facility bringing state services closer to the citizen. The government partnered with the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG) for the project.
The model has impressive results — stray technical issue notwithstanding — and the department is looking ahead with plans to integrate private transportation services and movie tickets. The model has been replicated in cities like Hubli-Dharwad. Though states like Andhra Pradesh (eseva) and Kerala (FRIENDS) have had similar experiments, the B-1 concept is still unique in terms of variety of services on offer.


BMTC VOLVOS
With the post-1990s surge in traffic leaving Bangalore bursting at its seams, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) had to get more people on board public transport to beat the rush. Volvo services were launched in January 2006 and over two years later, they have managed to make a positive difference, getting a good number of car users shift to public transport.
Though the BMTC has maintained that running luxury city buses in local conditions is not commercially viable, it said the Volvos have given a marked thrust to encouraging the use of public transport. The aspects like pricing of Volvo fares have been dissected but there has been positive feedback on quality of services.
Initially apprehensive about connectivity between the city and the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), the city’s air passengers have, by and large, given a thumbs up to the Volvos (called Vayu Vajras on airport routes).
With about 50 Volvos on BIA routes alone, the service has been replicated in Hyderabad, where its airport promoters have started aero express routes between the city and the airport. Chennai launched its Volvo services in 2007.



BATF
The Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), a thinktank formed by the former chief minister S M Krishna in 2000, comprised IT head honchos and urban planners. It was a platform to provide workable solutions to civic stakeholders for the city’s development. Headed by Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani, the task force functioned with the bureuraucracy.
Today, BATF is history, but the model has been replicated elsewhere. The task force brought in accountability which resulted in the regular work review summits which saw active participation of citizenry too.
Instrumental in rolling out Swacchha Bangalore and also the SAS form of property taxation, and distinctive bus shelters. BATF worked well during the tenure of the Krishna government. While the model was on its way out in Bangalore, the Delhi government evinced interest. BATF members were invited by Sheila Dixit to present the model in Delhi which was rolled out.
The subsequent Dharam Singh and Kumaraswamy governments in Karnataka did not show any interest in reviving it. Though the new CM B S Yeddyurappa did make an announcement on reviving the PPP model, nothing concrete has been done on this front. Bangalore’s loss was other cities’ gain. The model which attracted countrywide attention did not get the government’s support, leading to its slow death.



BHOOMI
It could not have been started in any other state but the country’s IT capital. Ambitious and highly successful, the Bhoomi e-governance project has in its ambit 20 million land records of 6.7 million land owners in 176 taluks of the state. The computerized records are available to farmers and land owners at nominal fees from kiosks all over the state.
The manning of the mammoth project, partly funded by the state government, is done from the state capital. It incorporates the biometric system which authenticates various users on the Bhoomi software on the basis of fingerprints. The city got its own kiosk in 2001 and since then, has been dispensing land records to people at very low fees. Several lakhs have used the touch-screen project in Bangalore Rural and Urban districts.
The project has won several accolades and become a model for effective e-governance in the country. Several states have begun to emulate it in various forms. The project has made a lot of people happy — no middlemen, no long queues, no astronomical fees.