URBAN PLANNING

I was walking down the Inner Ring Road, from Jayadeva Circle towards Silk Board, and was struck by the difference in the way roads are designed now. No trees, no shade, to make the pedestrians' lot a little easier....but that was less of a problem than the amount of space allocated to walk on. Here's the footpath just past the Jayadeva flyover....If you drive on the new roads of Bangalore, you are likely to be late, but if you try to walk on the new roads of Bangalore, you may be the late pedestrian!⊕

Recently, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Revised Master Plan - 2015 (RMP), or the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR) was admitted in the Karnataka High Court. The PIL was filed by the Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), the Sadashivnagar Residents' Welfare Association (SRWA) and 12 distinguished citizens against the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), for disregarding public sentiments and expert opinion and going ahead with the RMP in its present form. Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Ravi Malimath admitted the writ petition (Case: 3676, 2008) on 3 March. The petitioners have charged that the…

As is well known by now, the city's road widening project is also causing a massive cutting down of trees. There is now the risk that it might reduce the greenery of the garden city just to its gardens. A PIL was filed with the High Court by the Environment Support Group (ESG) asking the court, amongst other things, to put a stay the project. As a response to the PIL, the High Court on 28 June appointed a panel of experts to a review committee to oversee developmental projects like the Metro, underpasses, road widening, and so forth. According…

So we now have a new government and one that says it will keep its promises. And we have freshly-elected MLAs, including some who have gone on record "rededicating themselves to the citizens of their constituencies."   The MLA elected from the area I live in has been quoted in the press saying that his focus will be on the new wards added to the newly created constituency. "There are many low-lying areas in these wards that need attention," he says. "Apart from that, there are many interior roads in Koramangala and Ejipura areas that need to be tarred. Water…

At the end of a recent article headlined "A right to walk," Gurcharan Das suggested encouragingly that citizens can make a difference to city life if they really try. "The starting point is to extend your circle of concern beyond your front door (as Yudhishthira did in the Mahabharata when he insisted on taking a stray dog into heaven)," he wrote. "You will discover that municipalities do respond to citizen pressure if citizens are united and relentless." That's really great to know. But he has probably not dealt with the municipal authorities of Namma Bengaluru. It is not for want…

The spouse of a politician standing for election from one of several constituencies in Bangalore visited our home today to persuade us to vote for her partner. The entourage of about ten or twelve people brought with them not only the customary leaflet requesting us to cast our "valuable votes" in favour of their candidate but also a glossy, colourful, 20-page booklet in Kannada and English. The brochure, titled "My vision for the ... constituency," presented "an overview of the developmental activities" undertaken by the person concerned in the constituency he had earlier represented. "Let works speak rather than words," said…

Namma Metro's construction on M G Road has stopped for a couple of weeks, according to a reliable source at BMRCL. This is because a private property next to Nalli Silks on M G Road is under litigation i.e., the owner of the property has a personal litigation going on about the property itself. There is a court stay on the property for two weeks, following which, the construction will begin again. Ongoing construction is causing noise disturbance for residents living within a few feet of the work. Pic: Zainab Bawa. On CMH Road also, construction has stopped as of…

I thought I'd begin my blog on Citizen Matters with the question: does the citizen really matter? Recent experiences in Bangalore suggest that they do not, especially in the context of public policy. The ongoing brouhaha over the Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) is only the latest example of the total lack of transparency and complete disregard for citizens' rights to information and self-determination that mark planning (if any) for the city's development. This aspect of the issue has received far less attention so far than more obviously emotive ones such as inadequate infrastructure for effective connectivity. Although reams of newsprint…

Bangalore's administration and the Karnataka state government are trying to deal with the city's massive traffic woes in one way or another. The most common approach undertaken by governments is to implement schemes to widen roads, build flyovers, and develop mass transit/rapid transit systems. Recently, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) decided to implement its proposal of widening 85 roads in the city. Bangalore's roads are currently handling 32 lakh vehicles, nearly two and a half times the number in 1990s. It was in 2005 that the city's Roads Department announced the road widening scheme for 85 roads. However, the…

Corrupt government officials who have actively abetted illegal constructions in the city should be taken to task before any action can be taken against owners of such properties. This was the common refrain among citizens of the city who met under the aegis of the Citizens' Action Forum (CAF) on 24 January 2008 to discuss, debate and arrive at a consensus on issues arising out of the amendment to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. The amendment is known as the Sakrama scheme. The group discussing Setback and FAR violations at the CAF Forum on Sakrama. Pic: Samuel Jacob.…