Ways to make Bengaluru a better city to live in

Bengaluru: Bengaluru could see its population double to 20 million by 2040. The Karnataka government set up a three-member committee to come up with a plan to tackle the huge infrastructure and other urban issues in the city that sees itself as India’s Silicon Valley. The committee, headed by former chief secretary B.S. Patil, submitted its report this week. Here is a snapshot of the key recommendations:

Change the governance structure

One reason for poor governance in Bengaluru is that it is being overseen by a single central corporation, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which has 261 council members and about 12 other decision-making authorities called standing committees. It is dysfunctional and neglects over half the population on the outskirts of the city. The committee proposes the creation of miniature versions of BBMP, a three-tier structure and five smaller corporations. It also proposes the creation of an apex body called Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to plan and oversee mega infrastructure projects and integrate agencies such as the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB).

Create more wards (or boroughs)

While the core of Bengaluru grew by only 18% in the last decade, the outer periphery grew by over 100%. The result: a population mismatch across wards. For instance, 21 wards have a population of less than 30,000 each but 43 wards have a population of more than 50,000 each. The report suggests about 400 wards, each having 20,000-30,000 population, to be delineated in the current BBMP area for balanced development.

Focus on local governance

Fixing a pothole in a suburban area needs approval from the central corporation as it is responsible to bid out all such work. The report says small local civic issues can be addressed by proposed tier III ward committees.

Share the wealth

The report proposes setting up a specialised economic development agency anchored to GBA that can be run in a public-private partnership model and which will work like a city-based investment-creation arm. The private face will attract investment, but the government will run the show at the back-end. It also calls for setting up a Greater Bengaluru Finance Commission in order to distribute wealth equally between rich areas and poor areas in the city and review GBA’s financial position periodically.

Adopt spatial planning

The committee also proposes strategic spatial planning—a concept of urban planning popular in western countries—to separate visioning tools from regulatory tools. Rajeet Mathew, an urban development professional who was consulted by the committee, defines strategic projects as those which bring about a collective structural change to the city, addressing a wider section and including numerous departments in implementation. “Suppose the government decides to set up another electronic city where it will need power, connectivity and water supply. The new approach proposes to bring all players who provide such facilities on board and start a negotiation process. It will be a back-and-forth process, with dovetailing of plans and aggregating them on a larger scale,” she said.

Rahul Chandran in Bengaluru contributed to this story.