V. Ravichandar
Civic Evangelist
...beggars would ride. At the moment, we are barely able to provide a liveable city to the 10 million people who currently inhabit it and the Revised Master Plan 2031 appears clueless about the road map towards handling another 10 million. One hopes the plan in its current form is buried as the Metro on MG Road should have been a decade ago. That would be visionary thinking.
Predicting Bengaluru in 2018 looking out of the rearview mirror of 2017 is hazardous. There are two ways to think about 2018. The realistic one is to look towards the ‘horizon’ and make hopeful wishes from the current quagmire in which we see ourselves mired. The other option, which is set out below is to make fervent wishes for 2018 with no care for the ninety-nine reasons why it will never happen.
Let’s start by wishing that 2018 is the year in which the back of the garbage mafia is finally broken. The BBMP must equip itself with requisite machinery and people resources to let the Garbage (Transport?) Contractors know that they stand to lose their lucrative earnings if they do not sign up for contracts based on handling segregated waste with performance norms. And work with resident welfare groups and SWM NGOs to mitigate the waste management challenges.
Our construction sites, be it the roads, water, sewerage utilities, power lines or the Metro, resemble war zones. Can we have our work sites be worthy of the lovely city logo that has been launched? Work sites that are more orderly, barricaded and safe for workers and citizens alike, with thought given to traffic diversion routes with adequate signage.
Can 2018 be the year where the Government focuses on true mobility in terms of moving more people in a faster and safer environment? And recognizing that walking and cycling are modes of transport also? Could it possibly be the year when authorities gives up their love for the motorists and embrace pedestrians as the most important customer, along with investments in public transport - buses and commuter rail in particular. And perhaps archaic acts like the Contract and Stage Carriage Acts will no longer be used as excuses to deny Bengalureans better platform-based, technology-led bus transport options.
One hopes that 2018 is not another year where we need to refer to 1905 village maps to deprive a few unfortunate souls of their dwellings. More public data in usable formats should be put out. The city should reimagine the water flow contours, given the current realities, with a view to mitigate future flooding.
Will 2018 be the year of Coordination among the multiple civic agencies? Good citizen outcomes need integration across agencies. All we get are excuses, wherein rigid government silos sit around blaming each other. We need transformative models to ensure inter department coordination and clarity on whom to hold accountable for non-performance.
The Revised Master Plan 2031 is due in 2018. In its current form, it sounds a death knell for the city as we even know it now. We are barely able to provide a liveable city for 10 million people and the master plan is clueless on the road map towards handling another 10 million. One hopes the plan in its current form is buried as the Metro on MG Road should have been a decade ago. That would be visionary thinking.
Is this wishful thinking? Not so if we have the political will, administrative firmness and citizen involvement in collectively making it happen.
