WHY INDIA’S SILICON VALLEY IS AN URBAN NIGHTMARE
India's Silicon Valley has chaotic streets, packed airport and poisoned lakes. Residents hope the new government will bring its glory back
Church Street in central Bengaluru has all the earmarks of an European road — a flawlessly laid road, adequate walking space on the footpath and good lighting. The road that connects it to the parallel Mahatma Gandhi Road, on the other hand, has glaring potholes and dug up vents for pipes — a nightmare for vehicle users and walkers.
The street is symbolic of the aspiration of Bengaluru with active citizen participation and how it is half met by successive governments.
“The city has suffered for 20 years as successive central governments have neglected Bengaluru. This is because in the recent past the ruling parties in Karnataka were always in the opposition in Delhi,” said T V Mohandas Pai, former Infosys director and a prominent Bengaluru citizen. “The city is a growth driver to both the state and India’s economy and its infrastructure needs to be addressed on an urgent basis.”
With a population of 13 million and 7 million vehicles on the road, Bengaluru imitates the western world in vehicular density. Nonetheless, the government and authorities keep on treating the city as though it were part of an underdeveloped country, says an urban planner.
The city’s traffic, however helpful a reason for being late to work, is a sticky point for every government.
Only half of Bengaluru’s eligible voters turned up at polling stations in the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly elections. This shows the profound discontent that the inhabitants have for the legislature towards its ability to fix some problems that are begging to be addressed.
Bengaluru, the hub for software exports, contributes 60 per cent of the state’s revenue.
The 2018-19 budget for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP), or the city corporation, is around ~93 billion, of which less than a third is spent on infrastructure.
The city elects a mayor for a one-year-term, but he/she is largely a titular leader. Bengaluru, which elects 28 legislators to the Assembly, is controlled by the state government, which usually diverts funds from the city to rural Karnataka.
Citizen activism is on the rise as individuals get together to pressure the authorities into action. Yet, it is too little. Even as a political war between the BJP and the Congress unfolds in the state, Bengaluru’s residents are hopeful that the next state government would work with the central government to better plan the city’s growth, said Pai.
Ramesh Babu, a transport planner at the Centre of Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), said the volume-to-capacity ratio of many of Bengaluru’s roads is greater than two. For the smooth flow of traffic, the ideal volume-to-capacity ratio should be in the range of 0.3-0.4.
This over-usage of Bengaluru’s streets is generally the reason for traffic snarls.
“Whatever new layouts we are planning, we are not doing it in accordance with the standards. Roads are not being made sufficiently wide. We need to do systematic planning and execution. Generally, if projects are delayed they won't serve the growing population,” said Babu.
The authorities are planning long-term infrastructure projects, but in most cases, delays in planning and execution are leading to services being unable to carry the load even before they are launched or soon after.
Bengaluru’s International Airport is an instance of planners underestimating the city’s growth. The airport serviced traffic of 25 million people in 2017, a figure the authorities and planning commissions had said it would not hit for the next few years. While the BIAL authorities said they could optimise their infrastructure further to cater for more passengers each year, the number of flights the airport can handle currently has hit the maximum. The planned second runway of the airport, which will be ready in 2019, now seems to be behind schedule despite construction being on time, so far.
Pai’s demand is that the city’s 66 km of Metro rail connectivity be completed as quickly as possible along with 1,000 km of roads.
Another issue that Bengaluru faces is untreated sewage being let into natural lakes, for which he says the government needs to ensure 100 per cent treatment of sewage.
Bellandur Lake, in the eastern part of the city, has become a tourist attraction of sorts as people flock to see its waters often on fire or shrouded in froth as high as 20 feet. Untreated effluent entering the lake from nearby industries has been a menace, which local people have protested against numerous times without much result.
People of the city hope that once the tussle for occupying Vidhana Soudha ends, the new government will focus on the city and bring its glory back.
Delays in planning and execution are leading to services being unable to carry the load even before they are launched or soon after