Articles by Varadarajan Raman

Part 1 looked at the details of the Bengaluru Climate Action and Resilience Plan (BCAP), its objectives, focus areas, resource planning, etc. The Government of Karnataka has tasked Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) with the primary leadership and responsibility for this initiative. While plans on paper seem comprehensive, the ground reality, however, leaves much to be desired. The challenges are many. The government needs to put in place a governance structure to execute them, considering that BBMP, entrusted with the primary leadership responsibility, hasn’t had an election for over seven years! What does sustainable and healthy living-an objective of BCAP-mean for…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) announced the formation of the Bengaluru Climate Action Plan on November 27th with WRI India as knowledge partner. This is as a result of Bengaluru being a signatory to the C40 cities. Citizens wholeheartedly welcome the BCAP initiative and what it sets out for Bengaluru in the long term. This article breaks down BCAP’s objectives and highlights some of the serious concerns of citizens regarding the city's fragile governance mechanism. BCAP and its objectives Objective: Make Bengaluru carbon neutral or achieve net zero carbon footprint by 2050. The entire initiative is based on delivering sustainable…

The draft Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) 2019 is essential for providing a long-term vision for Bengaluru’s transport and mobility. But the plan gives little importance to the environment; it does not consider mitigation factors against the city’s depleting green cover, or steps to prevent the heat island effect. On the contrary, a project such as the elevated corridors -- which is included in the document -- would only further environmental degradation. Walking and other non-motorised modes of transport are not emphasised enough in the CMP as well. Besides, the process by which CMP was developed raises a fundamental question about…

In the first part of this series, we pointed out that Environment Clearance (EC) was issued for the mammoth elevated corridors project within the record time of two weeks. EC is issued based on an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by the project proposer. In this case, the consultant AECOM Asia had submitted the report on behalf of the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) which is implementing the project. In this part, we discuss the serious omissions in the EIA, which begs the question of how the EC was issued at all. For one, the EIA does not…

Despite the obvious damage it would cause to Bengaluru’s environment and ecology, the elevated corridors project had got Environment Clearance (EC) in no time. As citizen groups have appealed to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to scrap the project, in this series, we look at how the project had got EC even as it avoided a rigorous environment impact assessment. EC is issued based on an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report that the project proposers submit. In the case of elevated corridors, the project consultant AECOM ( on behalf of the proposer Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd) had submitted a…