Mission Bengaluru: ABIDe maps a dream

Mission Bengaluru: ABIDe maps a dream

Citizens can comment on the action plans and send in their suggestions

Senthalir S. Bangalore



The ABIDe has proposed to bring back a Bengaluru of its founder Kempe Gowda's dreams, by unveiling a new urban planning model for the city with citizen-centric governance and a better quality of life and neighbourhoods as its key features.
Tasked with building a better city by upgrading infrastructure and improving social facilities, the Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task Force (ABIDe) has proposed to chalk out Neighbourhood Areas (NAs) and set up Neighbourhood Area Committees (NACs).
It has also mooted a Bengaluru Region Governance Act to empower citizens to participate in the development of his/her neighbourhood.
The task force has also recommended a directly-elected Mayor or Mayor-in-Council for a five-year term with the council drawn from non-elected specialists as well as elected corporators.
These are among the several major proposals made by the ABIDe in its four action plans and blueprints on governance, road traffic management and transportation, urban poor and security, respectively. The action plans are available on bengaluruvedike.org
Proposing the delimitation of the Bruhat Bengaluru Area into 147 wards, the task force has defined a ward as a living, geographical area of at least 40,000 citizens and distinct from an NA. The NAs represent layouts and colonies etc. Each NA will have an NAC, which will have the right to approve or veto a specific set of issuses that impact it. The approval rights of NAC include land use conversion and nature of commercial development among other things. NAs can opt for better services if they choose to pay higher taxes. To provide a safe environment for people, ABIDe has proposed not to have bars of pubs in NAs which will be predominantly residential enclaves irrespective of their mixed used status.
It has recommended strengthening of the Lokayukta Act and Karnataka Transparency Act.