Bengaluru: Get motorist off roads, boost public transport

Bengaluru: Manyata Tech Park should be a classic example of how a tech park should not be built and how it has failed to integrate the physical infrastructure to make mobility a pleasant experience. Although Bengaluru is growing at a rapid pace, there is acute shortage of urban planning and foresight. Due to poor planning, allowing tech parks and multiplexes at the heart of the city by the city administration has made commuting a miserable and chaotic.

Urban evangelist V. Ravichandar told Deccan Chronicle that cities must have strategic plans and strategic projects where a lot of people work must be identified. Instead of just one agency approving the sanction plan, multiple agencies must put their heads together to ensure that the project is not falling short of mobility, social and physical infrastructure.

Discreet sanction of building plan, without consulting other civic agencies, has been leading to chaos. Gone are the days where the city had the good model of “live and work’ which the Public Sector Units (PSU) like HMT and ITI pioneered in Bengaluru. Unfortunately, instead of taking a cue and developing it, the city has thrown it. Providing all required infrastructure makes wonders, he explained.

Ironically, in Bengaluru, what is witnessed is haphazard growth, lack of public transportation. Frankly speaking, incentivising and penalizing are the two ways to solve traffic congestion rather than building flyovers above flyovers. Policy should be such that 70 per cent travel by bus or public transportation to reach their work places or other destinations. In this regard, government must enhance the quality of footpaths and increase the efficiency of public transport.

Tech companies must say no to private vehicles rather than creating space for parking vehicles. Widening the roads is not at all a solution. In some countries buildings with minimum or no parking space is built to encourage use of public transport. Further, impact fee will be levied for bringing private vehicles into the Central Business District (CBD) to discourage use of private vehicles, explained Dr Narendra, a resident of Banasawadi.