The ongoing debate about road widening schemes and BBMP’s proposal to use TDR raises interesting questions about the city’s development.
It should be understood that TDR is merely one tool among many available to the authorities to tackle the city’s traffic situation. The current disconnect between mobility, urban and economic development, land use and social behaviours results in isolating traffic and transportation as an engineering engagement, generating patchwork solutions. It is important to find a comprehensive solution for this issue.
The creation of a connected and permeable urban fabric should be part of a holistic plan that is visionary, transparent and accountable, and also addresses social, economic and environmental issues equitably.
There is no discernible transportation policy for the metropolitan region, which addresses the needs of various sectors, including pedestrian movement, road and rail rapid transit systems, etc. Without this, it would be premature to justify the need for road widening.
Some critical questions that need to be answered are: Has there been a comprehensive study of transportation needs for widening roads? Has the capacity of existing networks been evaluated judiciously? Does the proposed scheme tie up with a larger mobility policy?
Such a debate is needed at this juncture due to the immense gap in the constitutionally mandated roles of urban local bodies and reality. As articulated in the Kasturirangan report, there is direct conflict between multiple public bodies with multiple agendas using multiple planning tools.
There is neither a comprehensive list of projects and programs from a common development plan, nor is there a common geographical canvas they operate upon. It is sad that even after two years, the Kasturirangan report is yet to be acted upon. Also, while constitutionally mandated agencies like BMRDA await the state’s reaction on proposals, various lobby groups go ahead with their ‘vision’ for the city.
The decentralisation agenda of NURM and MoUD demands that proper capacity be built within local bodies to address development issues through integrated planning, something that is sorely lacking in our municipal agencies. Line agencies like BMTC and BWSSB are forced to evolve plans and projects for want of a clear planning directive that addresses regional and urban issues in an integrated manner.
A case in point is the water situation in Bangalore — a huge disaster waiting to happen. We have become complacent to seriousness of the issue, happily assuming that the pipelines from Cauvery are inexhaustible and building more pipelines is the way forward.
The ‘solution’, as seen by the agency, is a Rs12,000 crore outlay that includes creating six artificial lakes. After the abject failure of the state in maintaining the 200-odd lakes in Bangalore, such proposals are blatant misuse of taxpayer’s money. With little understanding of ecological services rendered by watersheds, valley systems and lakes, treating environment as an extended engineering exercise is guaranteed to result in failure.
While each agency is convinced of its good intent, the road to hell, as St Bernard of Clairvaux said, is paved with good intentions.
—The writer is the principal of Integrated Design
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