How to rescue Brand Bengaluru

‘Quality of life’, the most valued attribute in Bengaluru, has been lost as congestion, poor urban infrastructure, and ‘commercialisation’ plague neighbourhoods.

As we commemorate the 514th birth anniversary of Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bengaluru, it would do good to recall that he built this city by constructing lakes and planting trees. However, it’s difficult to say whether we have been worthy stewards of the city he built.

Bengaluru rapidly outgrew its laid-back status, as it became a destination for scientific research organisations, public sector giants, educational institutions and medical centres. Eventually with the advent of the software revolution, the crown of ‘Silicon Valley’ and ‘IT capital’ came to rest quite naturally on this hub of innovation.

The fairy tale was not to last forever. As the city collapsed under the combined weight of unplanned growth and poor governance, the sheen began to rub off. Media headlines screamed ‘civic apathy’, ‘stuck in traffic’, ‘flooding’, ‘potholes’, ‘accidents’, ‘poor public transport’, ‘congestion’, “pollution’, ‘encroached wetlands’, ‘green cover loss’ and so on.

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The defining moment came when the Supreme Court advised the other states of India to not make a ‘Bengaluru’ out of their cities, treating the city as a metaphor for a ruined city.

Behind this are decades of abuse and corruption. The city is unable to cope with unchecked growth. Leave alone commercial zones, even old layouts have lost all identity and are fast becoming over-crowded hell-holes. The government has pretty much abdicated its role in governance and enforcement of laws.

‘Quality of life’, the most valued attribute in Bengaluru, has been lost as congestion, noise, pollution, poor urban infrastructure, ‘commercialisation’ and ‘slummification’ plague neighbourhoods.

A city sans a plan

The sharp rise in urbanisation post-independence and rising property rates gave birth to land mafia in Bengaluru. The elevation of the city as the capital of Karnataka brought with it extreme political corruption and connivance with the land mafia, manifesting itself as a ‘political economy’ that has controlled Bengaluru’s fate ever since.

There are two distinct nexuses that operate in the political economy.

 Real estate-builder-politician nexus that promotes general corruption

 Contractor-broker-politician nexus that operates behind every ad-hoc engineering project

These nexuses feed on corruption and problematic governance to allow violations, illegalities and encroachments, to prevent systematic master planning and institutional capacity building.

Political economy is nonpartisan in nature. Behind all public pronouncements or changing governments, corruption keeps slithering away to fulfil ulterior motives. Politicians of opposing parties are often hand in glove when it comes to illegal projects. The attempted Pattandur Agrahara Lake buffer violation in Whitefield is an outstanding example.

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The city had an opportunity to redeem itself since 1992, when the 74th Amendment was passed by the parliament, laying out the framework for urban planning and governance of cities. The state government could have used this opportunity to set things right, long before the information technology wave hit the city.

However, even after 30 years, the government is yet to implement the law in its true spirit. It is the biggest lost opportunity for Brand Bengaluru. Bengaluru is perhaps the only metropolis that lacks a master plan. The politicians of Karnataka are squarely to be blamed for it.

Old wine in a new bottle?

The newly sworn-in Karnataka government has a dedicated minister for Bengaluru’s development. D K Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister who has been assigned this portfolio, has declared it his mission to repair the damage done to Brand Bengaluru. He launched a rapid fire of announcements and actions, some of which are contradictory. To mention a few:

 Action against officials behind violations at Hosakere Halli Lake while there is no intent to act on the illegal road on Pattandur Agrahara Lake buffer in Whitefield or other similar issues.

 Announcements of intent to form elite vision groups or task forces, despite the Karnataka high court’s order that such groups are unconstitutional.

 Announcement that new flyovers and underpasses would be built. Experts and citizens protest against such ad-hoc non-solutions.

 A meeting of the elites was convened for Brand Bengaluru. A recitation of the familiar projects ensued — underground roads (tunnel), elevated corridors, steel bridges, and flyovers. World over, governments, in cognisance of the looming climate emergency, are proposing Mass Rapid Transit, zero-carbon cities, sponge cities and the like, to foster sustainable urban habitats. Yet here we are, muddling around with failed proposals.

 Media reports suggest that the government is planning a wild goose chase to Singapore, to study underground roads. However, Singapore cancelled its underground roads project in 2017 in order to move towards sustainable Mass Rapid Transport and to discourage cars. Visit they must, not to pursue tunnel nightmares, but to learn the strategy Singapore is adopting to move towards a ‘Zero-Car’ City. Tokyo is another city they must visit; almost the same size as Bengaluru, where everyone uses suburban rail or metro for the commute. From there, they can fly to Amsterdam to see how the car-dependent city started using bicycles as the primary mode of transport.

 The government launched a Brand Bengaluru portal with a public survey to collect suggestions for Bengaluru’s revival. However, the survey comes with a set of pre-fixed superficial questions and does not address the core issues that need resolution. Systemic solutions are needed for the systemic malaise that plagues Bengaluru. Window-dressing can only go so far.

 The government has constituted yet another ward delimitation committee. Ramalinga Reddy who heads this committee supports the idea of 243 wards, but the B S Patil Committee re-constituted to restructure BBMP supports the idea of 400 wards. with five municipalities.

Elitist approach

The real potential for change in the city is rising in the form of ownership by its ordinary citizens. Ward committees are just an example. Instead of hobnobbing with the out-of-touch elite, D K Shivakumar must engage with citizens to show his solidarity for grassroots democracy. For example, he can attend a ward committee meeting every fortnight as a citizen to witness how citizens are developing the capacity to provide oversight over governance.

Conspicuous by its absence is the government’s lack of consultations with professionals such as urban planners or transport planners, the Union Ministry of Urban Development at the Centre, the Town and Country Planning Organisation, Institutes of Urban Planning, or the Niti Aayog.

D K Shivakumar’s controversial statement that he would ‘bulldoze’ public opinion to build flyovers seals the suspicions about his autocratic and elitist tendencies. This culture of top-down decision-making, cronyism and unplanned growth adopted by the political class symbolises everything that killed Brand Bengaluru. His bravery is required in building mass transit systems, public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure to make Bengaluru a truly modern global city.

The government needs to take a pause and reconsider what its real objective is. If the idea is to revive Brand Bengaluru, then what a ‘brand’ is needs to be understood. A brand is not glitzy marketing; it is the ‘experience’ one derives. In the ‘Brand Bengaluru’ context, the experience of a few elite living in ivory towers is not as crucial as that of 2 crore important citizens.

A to-do list for the minister

How clean is Bengaluru? How good is public transport? How walkable is the city? How liveable are its streets and neighbourhoods? How safe is it? These experiences define Brand Bengaluru.

If the government is serious about turning around the fortunes of the city, there are just a few things to do:

 Free the administration from the stranglehold of corruption

 Bring Transparency and professionalism to the administration

 Restore the rule of law and enforcement against all violations

But the biggest resistance to reforms could be expected from the political economy in the city. Can the government convince the unholy nexuses to toe the line?

Let’s face the facts. Bengaluru is in dire straits. It has lost 97% of green cover and 90% of wetlands; it is almost 90% concretised; groundwater is depleted. The city has breached all ecological boundaries and capacity, it doesn’t have the capacity for more growth; there are no resources to sustain the city. Unless the government brings all stakeholders to a common understanding that the city is facing an imminent collapse from which it might never recover, and unless everyone drops their selfish interests, and unite to pull this city out of its morass, there is very little hope that this city can recover.

Bengaluru is on a slippery slope, and some bold decisions have to be taken immediately to stem this decline and turn it around. Painkillers won’t work, it requires deep surgery to remove the cancer.

Here is a to-do list for the Bengaluru Development Minister:

1. Form a masterplan: Freeze and outlaw all approvals, projects and constructions based on the flawed and outdated Revised Master Plan-2015. Fast-track the formation of a new holistic master plan following due process, ground-up planning and thorough public consultation. The maps and studies generated by the draft RMP-2031 exercise are of good quality and could be used as base data for the new master-planning exercise.

2. Quick ward delimitation: Instead of prescribing a set number, ward boundaries should be redrawn on a scientific/geographic basis, or village revenue map boundaries should be converted into wards, to ensure continuity in government records and make governance easier.

3. Empower Metropolitan Planning Committee: Appoint qualified urban planners and transport planners to the MPC. Amend state recruitment rules to allow the hiring of real urban planners. Elect members to MPC, empanel a group of urban planners to hand-hold ward committees, in order to build capacity for ward-level planning.

4. Amend BBMP Act: Hold robust public consultation to amend BBMP Act 2020, to remove clauses that are repugnant to the 74th Amendment.

5. Unification and devolution of BBMP: Unify all services under BBMP, Devolve and make BBMP totally autonomous.

6. Ward committees and area sabhas: Strengthen them, and introduce non-partisan elections to committees, in order to make them representative.

7. Transparency: Provide a portal with ward-level dashboards, aggregating all departments in the ward. Ensure every government development and office has a public website, and audit them regularly to ensure compliance with Section 4 of the RTI Act (suo-moto publication of updated public information). Ensure that all citizens can obtain all public information easily and quickly by electronic means. Interaction with all government departments and agencies has to be made easy and hassle-free.

Bengaluru cannot do this alone. In parallel, the state government needs to develop a strategy for encouraging distributed economic growth in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, by providing incentives for businesses to other towns, so that these areas can share economic progress, taking the pressure off Bengaluru. But taking a leaf out of Bengaluru’s misery, these towns and cities need to avoid the pitfalls, by investing in thorough planning and good governance, following a sustainable urban development model in advance.

These measures could save Bengaluru, and restore it to its past glory as a futuristic global city. The true success would be if D K Shivakumar is the last Bengaluru Development minister ever, once the BBMP polls are held and the city government takes over the role of steering Bengaluru. The minister has one chance at making history. Will he measure up?

(The author is the convenor of Citizens’ Agenda for Bengaluru)