The issue of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) has caused some confusion. My observation is that people are asking for a greater range of options.
TDR should not be the only option for those standing to lose property. It is a valuable instrument, but among the poor or the old, there might be very limited ability to use a market instrument like TDR and turn it into an asset.
After the alteration of the master plan in 2007 during the chief ministership of HD Kumaraswamy, the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) was raised to 3.25; what this means is that on existing property, people have the option to build three times the area of the plot. This permissible limit is already so high that a lot of people do not meet it.
There is likely to be no great market value for the TDR when this is the case. If the FAR is reduced on existing property, there is a greater chance for the TDR to command greater value in the market. All over India, one can build only one or two floors; the 2007 revision, which allows three floors, is a mistake. There is a need to revise it, to make TDR a financial instrument.
People also want some other option to the TDR, like a Bangalore Development Authority site. There are those who have smaller plots, who may have no use for the TDR. Even so, the TDR is not completely useless.
The other question is whether the city really needs to widen more than 200 roads. In the ABIDe transportation plan, we recommended that 14 arterial roads need treatment; what that means is that either the junctions ought to be eliminated, or the roads needed widening.
With the road widening project, there is need to examine whether there are some roads that can be treated as a priority. We also need to examine whether road widening adds real value in every instance.
People do not have a problem with the widening of roads like Sarjapur or Bannerghatta. These are large stretches. Issues are raised with the widening of inner city roads, Avenue Road or Sankey Road, which are narrow, short stretches.
We need to examine whether there is real need to widen such roads.
ABIDe had also suggested that road infrastructure is currently not utilised efficiently.
The quality of many roads is poor, and haphazard parking takes up a great deal of road space. Instead of starting the project on all 200-odd roads marked for widening, a select few roads should be widened and how the process helps that particular area should be studied.
Ashwin Mahesh is faculty member, IIM-B, and also a member of the Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development (ABIDe)
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