Siddaramaiah lays the road for better Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s budget has proposed several infrastructure projects to make the lives of Bengalureans easy.

Bidadi Township:

In an attempt to decongest city traffic, the state government has given emphasis to Satellite Town Ring Road and Bidadi Smart City local planning authority master plan in the present fiscal. The proposed Bidadi Integrated Township and Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) had been approved at a Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority. Mr. Siddaramaiah announced that a Detailed Project Reportis being prepared.  The BMRDA will be the special purpose vehicle and local planning authority for both projects. Bidadi Township is expected to spread over 9,178 acres covering 10 villages . This will be developed on ‘live-play-work’ concept. Township area includes 643 acres of water bodies, 6,336.33 acres of private land and 2,198.21 acres of government land. Now that Benglauru has a minister for its development, the new projects are likely to get the required push for completion.

Water:

There are no mega announcements for the BWSSB, but works on supplying drinking water to 110 villages has got a push in the budget. The government said Rs 5,018 crore loan has been approved by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project and the detailed project report (DPR) includes cutting down unaccounted for water of nearly 180 MLD. The BWSSB will have fair a number of projects to take up, thanks to the funds granted under AMRUT scheme. BWSSB will provide water facility to 22 slums, lay water pipeline from GKVK Reservoir to HBR Reservoir and provide sewage network of 110 km in Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Kengeri, under the scheme. Also, sewage treatment plants will be constructed at Hulimavu, Begur, Sarakki, and Agara lakes and at K R Puram. A pump house will be constructed at Koramangala Sports Complex. Over the next four years, STP works at Vrushabhavathi Valley, Hebbal, Koramangala and Chellaghatta Valley and Doddabele will be taken up at a cost of '355.5 crore. An additional untreated water transfer pipeline will be extended between Forbes Sagar and NBR and up to T.K. Halli at an estimated cost of Rs 160.33 crore.

Sales Tax:

Mr Siddaramaiah said that though the central government had increased excise duty on petrol and diesel three times in the recent past, the state government had not resorted to such a measure. But the revision of excise tax is essential at this juncture as crude oil prices are likely to go up, he said. With this increase, the cost of petrol will go up by Rs 1.89 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 0.98 per litre. Liquor sales In association with liquor manufacturing associations, the state government will aim to publicise the concept of ‘responsible drinking’. The campaign will focus on like drink-and-drive, consumption of illicit liquor, underage drinking and binge drinking. The government and the associations will give Rs 10 crore each for the programme. Mr Siddaramaiah said that revenues expected from liquor sales and license fee are Rs 16,510 crore.

Lakes:

The dying Bellandur and Varthur lakes have got their due this budget. They will be rejuvenated with the Lake Development Cess of KSPCB, BDA and BMRDA, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. With 13,370 acres of recovered government land lying with Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, an action plan is being prepared for better utilisation of 5,500 acres of land. BengaluruOne centres To provide better services under one roof, emphasis has been given to set up BengaluruOne centres at each of the 198 wards.