Bengaluru infra can support only 0.5 million people, not 10 million: Experts

Bengaluru: Bengaluru, with 10 million people, has infrastructure that can only cater to about 0.5 million, a fraction of its population. "Creating strong infrastructure and ecosystems is the current requirement and there is an urgent need to connect Mangalore and Karwar ports with hinterlands like Bengaluru, Hassan, Tumkur and Chitradurga," said Infrastructure Development Minister Roshan Baig at the inauguration of Conference on Infrastructure organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday.

The day-long conference, around the theme of Sustainable Infrastructure for Bangalore, was held with experts like R.K. Misra, Ashwin Mahesh and Vivek Menon on panels through the day. The BBMP is ill-equipped to fix roads, both in terms of finance and expertise, said urban expert R.K. Misra. “Right now, road building is done by engineers brought in from the PWD, for reasons best known to them.” The system of tenders, however, works well with the system, he explained, adding, “They make everybody happy, so give the BBMP small roads. What we need is to create a Bangalore Infrastructure Development Corporation.”

The people driving the decision-making process are “completely misinformed,” said Vivek Menon, MD, Invicus India and a prominent urban expert. "When we started working on Vittal Mallya road, we found that the hassle lay in institutional egos. The problem itself is not so complex. However, institutions don’t want to pay or work with each other. Corruption has crept into the system.”

Ashwin Mahesh, a civic expert, said there is no real plan for smart cities. "It's not about building an online domain for, say traffic management and then another for heritage data. What we need to do is create a platform that works well with every aspect of governance, so you don't need to start from scratch with every problem.”