Bengaluru development needs better planning
There is no need to remind the new masters of the city that they should assert stricter regulation of the encroachments on public spaces, ranging from footpaths to tank beds. This should be done in a humane but firm way
The Karnataka government’s minister in charge of Bengaluru’s development (also the deputy chief minister), DK Shivakumar or DKS, is a man in a hurry. Part of the hurry stems from the growing clamour for a big-city fix from its bourgeoisie, and some better services from its ordinary citizens. Far from resembling Singapore (if only “in strips”, as former chief minister, SM Krishna, had once modestly dreamed), Bengaluru resembles something of a battlefield — a war of all against all. The arrival of a public utility (say, new pipelines, or a flyover, or fresh underground cables) makes any area look like it was hit by a natural disaster, for months, and often for years. Meanwhile, citizens take chassis-challenging deviations or resign themselves to traffic delays. And, unlike comedian and writer Trevor Noah, they don’t have the option of “not performing”.
The other part of the minister’s hurry has to do with the brevity of political power, the uncertain term within which all politicians long to leave their mark, make their money, or both. But, it should be clear that neither a statue nor another private educational institution will match Robert Moses’ effect on New York, or, closer home, Edwin Lutyens’ on Delhi.
Instead, the state government has opted, quite literally, for ‘tunnel’ vision, forcing the city’s problems underground. You read that right: The city will soon have an 18 km tunnel with five exits. And, to announce that all is well on the ground, the government will build South Asia’s tallest sky deck in the city. Between them, the twins will ensure a resolution of the city’s surface wars, and give citizens a peg to hang their pride on.
This is in defiant denial of all that concerned citizens, planning experts, and most scholarly studies of the city’s infrastructure have long and loudly warned against. We well know that placing the automobile at the centre of city planning may keep the smiles on the faces of motor majors, but spells doom for the city as a whole. Flyovers did not solve the city’s traffic problems, only displaced them. With extreme weather events now becoming as regular as the city’s gul mohur blossoms, one shudders to think of how tunnelling will add to the existing perils of the city, above and below the ground.
To be a visionary urban leader, deputy CM DKS could begin by asserting an inter-generational responsibility that probably held true only of his city-founding 16th ancestor, Kempegowda (with whom caste kinship is sometimes claimed). The city needs new life and new, inclusive public spaces, not sky-decks for the rich. In a city that has seen no addition to the Lalbagh of Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan and the Cubbon Park of the British, the minister could work to vacate the status-quo order of the Supreme Court on Bangalore Palace (Acquisition and Transfer) Act, 1996. We urgently need another people’s park. Rather than offering the high-ticket-price-paying public a “360-degree view” of the chaos on the ground from the sky deck, the government should consider opening up the Turahalli Forest and Jaraka Bande Forest to the general public in a regulated fashion.
There is no need to remind the new masters of the city that they should assert stricter regulation of the encroachments on public spaces, ranging from footpaths to tank beds. This should be done in a humane but firm way: Can alternative sites be found for hawkers? Can buildings be enjoined to provide parking for up to half or 2/3rd of its employees and clients? Building permits that encroach public facilities (storm water drains, roadsides, parks, grounds, and forest areas) must be revoked, through strict enforcement of building by-laws.
On the traffic-control side, can the state government try restraining the use of private vehicles on some days of the week, or, at least, restraints on vehicles entering some areas of the city? Can it pedestrianise commercial areas, and strictly prohibit non-emergency vehicles? Or introduce a sorely needed congestion tax?
This requires an alternative to the real estate imagination that has gripped the city’s political masters. It calls for generating funds within an extremely wealthy city, by quadrupling the property tax, for instance. Why should real estate prices soar while property taxes remain puny? It is high time that the water subsidy, which has resulted in grotesque inequality of the poor paying too much for an intermittent and unreliable essential need, be removed for the well-heeled taxpayer while ensuring a steady supply to all residents.
Which major metropolis in the world offers ‘free parking’ to nearly all lorry, bus, car, and two-wheeler owners? Can car owners be made to buy residence permits for parking on the roadside in residential areas? Can strict payment for street-side parking in a city divided into zones be introduced? Can at least some public sector grounds be put to public use (playgrounds, libraries in both Kannada and English, sports facilities, some parking, and museums)? Can the defunct Bengaluru Development Authority complexes be turned into innovative centres for art and culture, libraries (in both Kannada and English), and some parking?
All this requires true foresight and political will. Other cities in the world have turned disaster into opportunity, for the benefit of all their citizens. There will no doubt be a sharp outcry, from industry, the middle class, and others who benefit from miseries that are inflicted on the general public. But it will be a historic first, and ensure DKS a place in the history books, as a visionary democrat.
Janaki Nair is a historian and the author of The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore’s Twentieth Century. The views expressed are personal