Roads in Bengaluru were so notorious for their chaotic traffic, broken roads and footpaths filled with potholes, overflowing drainages, hanging wires, poorly-placed power lines and the lack of footpaths for pedestrians to walk on, as they invited the wrath of commuters and fetched the city. Apart from these hassles, commuters were greeted each day with sign boards asking them to use a different road as the road which they used to commute regularly have been closed to take up works relating to various civic agencies be it BBMP, BWSSB or even BESCOM. But of late, roads in Central Business District developed under Tender SURE is catching the attention of all other cities in India and has been able to gather international fame too.
Before all, what is Tender SURE?
Tender SURE project is all about getting urban roads right. Project Tender SURE is seen as the panacea for all the problems plaguing roads in Bengaluru from long time. Be it the choked space for pedestrians, the potholes affecting the free flow of vehicles or the incessant digging up of roads for one or the other civic purpose, the aim of Tender SURE is to provide a solution to all these problems and make roads in Bengaluru to international standards.
What’s done to make the roads world class?
Tender SURE is not just associated with laying roads like any other civic agency contractor does. The project is about taking steps towards addressing the relationship between the quality condition of the streets and the quality of lives of citizens.
Breaking the never ending cycle
Those who use the same road everyday to reach their destination would have often noticed roads being dug up and relaid. If one civic agency digs the road this week and lays the road, it will be another agency be digging the very same road for other purpose and resurface it. And this was an never ending cycle in the CBD triggering traffic snarls every other day. Forget about the traffic snarls, the budgetary expenditure on digging and repairing the same road often was burning a big hole in the state budget after all run on tax payer's hard-earned money.
Integration of networked services
Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Road Execution) had the guidelines on India's first design, specification and procurement contract for urban roads execution. Tender SURE mandated the integration of networked services under the road-water, power, sewage, OFC, stormwater drain and gas.
Here are the crucial focus points of the project Tender SURE
1. It aims at de-incentivising use of private transport
2. It aims at developing roads with uniform lane width
3. It aims at making footpaths pedestrian friendly after footpath are meant for pedestrians.
4. Bring all utility ducts under the footpath on both sides of the road
5. Developing separate lanes for cycle wherever feasible
Design prioritises comfort and safety
The very design of Tender SURE prioritises the comfort and safety of pedestrians, cyclists apart from recognising the needs of hawkers and street vendors. This apart, Tender SURE also combines the street landscape and hardscape aesthetics with practical considerations of user behavioral change. Roads developed under Tender SURE will neither develop any potholes nor fall prey to tree cutting cutting as the roads are well organised to bring utility ducts on either side of the roads.
Achievements of Bangalore Development Authority:
LAKES:
The long wait of the Bengalurians to see the rejuvenated Agara and Benniganahalli Lake have been fulfilled as the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has desilted the two lakes that had almost dried up due to constant flow of effluents into the water bodies. Walkways, lagoons and islands have been constructed for the nearby residents who came on a long leisurely morning stroll. The lakes have once again regained its pristine glory and the re-energised form has become a hotbed for water birds.
Apart from the rejuvenation work of the Lalbagh Lake, BDA installed a fully automated water reclamation plant of 1.5 mld capacity at the garden which works round the clock to water the parched garden. Though, the weeding work took up by BDA in April is still under progress, it has managed to remove 2,970 tons of weed from the Bellandur Lake. In order to control frothing the chain link fencing at the lake has been completed.
In the month of June, the authority with the help of Bangalore Development Authority Police and the local tahsildar cleared unauthorised sheds and also demolished a road along side Varthur lake and recovered the encroached property. In the process, the BDA recovered 16 acres of land near the lake.
INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES:
The principal planning body has also took up the work to revamp Cubbon Park by planning to install 1.5 mld treatment plant with computerized irrigation network, formation of pathways and repairment of sewage lines. BDA bagged the prestigious national award for the team work of owner/contractor/designer consultant in carrying out the total project of the Hebbal flyover, the biggest in South Asia. The state budget for 2017 allocated '88 crore for the construction and widening of Hebbal flyover and construction of an under bridge.
HOUSING PROJECTS:
The chief minister, Mr Siddaramaiah has announced the construction of around 3,000 flats by the end of 2017-2018 and also directed the BDA to allot 5,000 sites in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout. The planning authority will also develop an innovative township spanning 166 acres in Konadaspura. In March, after the BDA added club and guest houses, recreational facilities such as table tennis and badminton courts, children’s play area, jogging tracks, department stores and ATMs to its flats, it received over 1,000 applications for its 1, 2 and 3-BHK flats which were earlier did not attract buyers. In the last decade, the BDA built around 5,000 homes to provide residential space for the economically weaker section and the lower income group, besides middle-income and high-income groups. Shifting from its earlier policy, which used to take a year for the buyer to buy a flat, the authority has come up with a new scheme, ‘across the table’ where the applicant can purchase a flat directly from the BDA within a day’s time. It has already 2,000 ready-to-occupy flats. BDA hopes to attract huge buyers after the launch of the new housing policy.
In order to achieve sustainable growth, BDA in its preliminary presentation on the revised master plan 2031 has indicated that it will ban all commercial developments in the heart of the city and will do away with the green belts and agriculture zones so that the green zone can be retained.
