Why is Bengaluru's blueprint group in a blue mood?

It’s unfortunate that a booming metropolis like like Bengaluru needs immediate help with its  transport, garbage collection, pollution and overflowing storm water drains. The government has responded in its characteristic way: setting up a committee. And true to form, the Bengaluru Blue Print Action Group (BBPAG) Or Bengaluru Vision Group was constituted with  industrial bigwigs like N.R. Narayana Murthy and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw in May 2016 to resurrect the IT City’s crumbling infrastructure. It has, however, made little headway. Nine months have passed since the group was established and its promised vision remains a mirage. Chandrashekar G. and Aknisree Karthik ask group members and city activists the question Bengaluru wants answered: Why the delay?

How can a blueprint be made without inputs from citizens?: D S Rajashekar, president, Citizens’ Action Forum
The very formation of the Bengaluru Vision Group is contradictory to the 74th amendment of the Constitution, which seeks to empower local bodies in planning. While we do not have anything personal against the members of the group, who are all veterans in their respective fields,  the question is how are they empowered to plan for a city without inputs from the people’s or elected representatives?  A common man will be keen to register his opinion on how his hard earned tax money should be spent and what he wants for the city he lives in. But there is no mechanism to record the opinions of citizens or elected representatives.

All such groups, be it the BATF or the others that were formed earlier, did not serve  the city any better. Since its inception in 2016, the latest group has hardly met to strategise for the city's development. Setting it up is no different from letting the BDA assume the responsibility of preparing a master plan for the city when this should be the job of the local planning authority. Ideally, the job of planning a vision document or preparing a blueprint for the city should  be that of the Metropolitan Planning Committees (MPCs), a Constitutionally formed body, which is supposed to integrate the plans of the local bodies.

Vision group was dead on arrival: V. Ravichandar, civic evangelist and BVG member
The Bangalore Vision Group (BVG) was set up at the discretion of the state government to advise it on various issues. And it is upto the government to decide how to best use its resources. We have had just one meeting in May 2016, so by any reckoning the vision group has not been a successful initiative. There has also been public criticism about the composition of the group.

It may have been more useful to create a set of sub-groups that could have worked with the government on specific sectoral issues like infrastructure, mobility, garbage, water, environment, governance, economic growth, welfare, and so on instead . Unfortunately, this did not happen. Also, people perceived the vision group as a smokescreen for approval of government projects. Although this was not true, the lack of public communication on the purpose of the  group did not help matters any.

In fact, the Bengaluru Vision Group was effectively dead on arrival. It is not necessary for every initiative to work and in this case it would be best to formally wind up the group. There is merit in civil society-government collaboration,  but it needs to be thought through and implemented in a transparent manner.

Will CM, BDA commissioner come out of this schizophrenic multi-identity existence?: Kathyayini Chamaraj, Executive Trustee, CIVIC Bengaluru
How many visions for a beautiful Bengaluru do we need? When a  Revised Master Plan 2031 for Bengaluru  is being currently prepared by consultants for the BDA,  we also have the Bengaluru Blueprint Vision Group (BBPVG) drawing up a blueprint for the city. Additionally, the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) is supposed to prepare a Draft Development Plan for it , but  is in limbo.

How are the Chief Minister and the BDA Commissioner, who are the chief players in all three bodies, supposed to come out of this schizophrenic multi-identity existence and which of these three plans are they finally going to sign on? The BBPVG is a new avatar of its predecessors, the BATF and ABIDe.  The avatars change with every new government, but the participants remain almost the same. All of them have hand-picked individuals perpetuating their hold and imposing their visions on the city, bypassing and curbing the autonomy and independence of the MPC and the local bodies under it, which are supposed to head local self-governments. This is a blatant violation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment and the Nagarapalika Act.

Bengaluru vision group needs clarity on charter, expected outcome: R K Misra, urban expert
The Bengaluru Vision Group, formed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in May 2016 to breathe fresh air into an ailing Bengaluru, has met only twice since its inception. Various civic agencies have presented their plans during these meetings and members have shared their views about infrastructure challenges facing the city. But there is no formal mechanism to engage with the vision group members on an ongoing basis. Also neither  the group as a whole, nor its members have been assigned any specific task.

As a member of the Bengaluru Vision Group and also by virtue of being  a member of the BLR Infrastructure Coordination Committee headed by the Chief Secretary of Karnataka, I attend infrastructure coordination meetings where heads of all civic agencies like the BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, BESCOM, PWD, and traffic police are present. These coordination meetings have detailed project- specific agenda and are outcome driven. So we have been able to take major decisions and have made significant progress in various infrastructure projects for the city .

Among the projects discussed were extension of Metro services to the Outer Ring Road, expediting Metro Phase-2, the 12 High Density Corridors and 50 TenderSURE Roads, that are slated for significant decongestion through road design improvement, traffic streamlining and white topping,  five signal-free corridors, rehabilitation of the Outer Ring Road from Agara till KR Puram, and introduction of new alternative roads to the Kempegowda International Airport Ltd (KIAL). An automated multi- agency road cutting and restoration protocol is another significant initiative underway.  You could also see mechanised road cleaning and pothole- filling in future in high density corridors and the Central Business District.

We have not made progress in projects like Elevated Corridors, where the detailed project reports are ready but no substantial progress has been made. The Peripheral Ring Road is another important project , which hasn't made much headway due to farmers' compensation issues. The Bellandur and Varthur lakes rejuvenation is hanging fire and the airport Metro connectivity is still waiting to happen.

Biocon MD, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and I are the only Vision Group members on the Bengaluru Infrastructure Coordination Committee, making sure we attend its meetings, usually convened on alternate Saturdays. The form and format of these meetings is outcome driven and significant progress has been made as a result. As for the Bengaluru Vision Group, there’s need for more clarity on its charter and expected outcome.