Articles by Ashwin Mahesh

In some neighburhoods, citizens are vexed by an increasing number of bars and pubs, and the dramatic change in the surroundings as a result. There have been various instances of conflict between residents and these establishments, and also a demand that BBMP should address this properly. This is doable, but only if we correctly identify the problems. (a) The first challenge is that people who want to set up the establishments are themselves property owners in the area, which causes discord between the neighbours in terms of what they themselves want. (b) The second is that often those letting their…

Square sections of tar have appeared on various roads, as BBMP and the government scramble to resurface the city. While these will provide immediate relief, they will also become the reason why we end up in the same problem once more later. This is this trap we need to get out of. In crisis mode, we must do something NOW. And inevitably the only option left at that time seems to guarantee a future crisis. There is only one way to solve the problem. We have to bite the bullet, and start doing the things that will solve the problems…

It is not possible to make the city pothole-free in 10 days. So it is unclear what the government hopes for, by ordering BBMP to do this. It may as well order the rains to stop! Keeping a city pothole-free is not difficult. But that requires doing a few things right to BEGIN with. The responses after things go wrong won't help. The only thing we can hope for in 10 days is to see whether the government and the BBMP begin to do things differently in the way construction and maintenance contracts are set up for roads and footpaths.…

Multiple groups are protesting the manner in which BBMP instituted ward committees in about 2/3rd of the wards - ignoring citizen volunteers and public interest groups, and taking only the input of the corporators. Such protests were bound to happen - and anyone who understands the history of urban failure will see clearly why. About 40 years after the Republic of India was founded, Parliament decided that the system of Central governments and State governments managing everything was ineffective, and therefore we needed to add three other pieces. To make this happen, they passed two laws - one for rural…

BBMP's proposal to begin charging people to park on the streets can seem like a long-overdue scheme. But while the principle of charging for public space seems reasonable, we should do more than that. We should set targets for what we hope to achieve by charging parking fees. One direct result will be revenues to the BBMP. Each of the 85 streets on which parking charges will be introduced should produce several lakhs in income to the municipal corporation each month. But are there other results we wish to see? And if yes, can we connect those results too to…

BBMP likes to create regular, small contracts. This system is informally known as 'hale kallu, hosa billu', and is well understood by all the stakeholders !! Take the example of shoulder drains. To begin with, it is common sense that a drain that collects rain water from the road should be built adjacent to the road and not to the property walls. But what we do is the exact opposite. Thereafter, to connect utilities like water and sewage to the properties, we run pipes across the drains, and these pipes becomes obstacles that collect various things thrown into the drain. As…

Wherever BDA shows its Master Plan, there are strong objections to it. People point out that it ... (a) .. is autocratic, having been developed with no input from the people of the city. It is almost as if it is being shown to us after everything is done and dusted, and only to comply with the legal requirement for 'consultations'. (b) ... is ill-conceived. The idea that the existing BDA region can / should support twice the population we now have is foolhardy, besides being environmentally tenuous. (c) ... is unconstitutional, having followed none of the statutory processes for…

The BMRDA Act was passed in the mid-1980s, to set up the Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, and to empower it to direct the planned development of the state capital region. Since its founding, however, the BMRDA has done nothing useful, because the state government has always preferred it that way. Why was the BMRDA set up, then, if no one wanted it to do anything? It's hard to be certain, but if I had to guess, I would say the answer lies with Ramakrishna Hegde. Hegde was an unusual Chief Minister, in one very important way that we are…

Metro has sought public input on which of the different lines - existing as well as proposed - should be extended to the airport. I'm sure many people will give their input, but there are two other aspects to look at. (1) We should conduct extensive surveys - ongoing - at the airport to always know where people are going to when they arrive, and where they are coming from to the airport. We don't need to collect anything other than the names of the neighbourhoods where trips originate and end. A map of this, updated every few months, will…

In well-planned cities, the government makes the plans and the builders respond to that with project proposals - to build residential communities, commercial facilities, and so on. In our cities, the builders and individual plot owners make their proposals first, and the city then scrambles to figure out how to plan the city around that. The order in which we do things is itself wrong. Within this error, looking for solutions to 'manage' the way things are done is pointless. Which is why making the planning body for the city work - as per law - is important. People sometimes…