Smart City: Will Bengaluru be third time lucky?

Bengaluru: Bengaluru has, to its shame, failed to bag the Smart City tag not once but twice,  losing out to smaller cities like even Davangere and Tumakuru, but not giving up, the BBMP council on Thursday decided to make a third attempt to make it. This time, though, it is being smart. It has decided to develop  core areas like Shivajinagar, Gandhinagar, Malleswaram and Chamrajpet if given the funds and has sent a proposal spelling this out to the state government.

Presented by BBMP Commissioner, Manjunath Prasad, and  unanimously approved by its council, the proposal also includes development of heritage structures of the  city like Russell Market, K R Market and K C General Hospital found in its core areas. Once approved by the state government, it will be forwarded to the Centre for its consideration.

 Speaking on the occasio0n, Mr Prasad recalled that the last time Bengaluru joined the Smart City competition, it had hoped to  develop Mahadevapura. “But an analysis of the top ten cities selected showed that seven of them had pitched for their core  areas. So keeping this in mind we have prepared a proposal to develop our core areas of Shivajinagar, Gandhinagar, Malleswaram and Chamrajpet this time," he explained.

But the city may have to shell out some funds of its own for the project even if selected this time as although  Rs 6,600 crore was available under the Smart City initiative in the past, this year the participants can look forward to only Rs 500 crore , according to the commissioner. “The remaining will  have to be borne by the state government through public-private partnership,” he revealed.

The BBMP has in the past claimed that it lost out on the Smart City tag because it was given only 15 days to prepare its proposal.