In recent weeks, Bengaluru has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Here are a set of recommendations to better manage Bengaluru that covers short, medium, and long term perspectives.
Firstly we should address the name of the city and what it stands for right. Both Government agencies and citizens should refer to Bengaluru as Bengaluru and not be the older name. This should happen in all databases within Karnataka, national and global levels after ensuring that it does not cause any issue to citizens or businesses. Next, we should understand what Bengaluru stands for, by going back to its past. It was a well-conceived city with a culture of planning, thanks to the vision of the founder Kempe Gowda and later leaders. Post-independence, it housed public sector companies with well-planned layouts. With many parks and gardens, it was called a garden city attracting many tourists and visitors. The city housed poets, authors, actors, politicians, social workers, officials, and citizens who upheld high ethical standards. In essence, Bengaluru exemplified the balance of Ecology, Economy, Ethics, and Aesthetics. It is time we recommit to that vision and arrive at an appropriate execution model to realize the same. This should have the right philosophical underpinning lest it will be like running on a treadmill and expecting to reach a distant goal.
The first principle we advocate as part of the proposed execution model is Neighbourhood First. Here we invert the current top-down model of urban management and give primacy to the management of neighbourhoods. There are many an issue the citizens face on a day-to-day basis which starts as small irritants and then assume criticality over time. These may be minor junctions where one takes U-Turns that are not well-paved and a small hole in no time becomes a big ditch and potholed roads. Even when new roads are laid on the margins the debris is left and the finishing is never done to satisfaction. The roads are seldom laid end to end. Even when the roads are laid well, the possibility of water logging appears as an afterthought. Then there are footpaths that are neither clean nor safe, the civic works that are done without any sense of accountability or aesthetics, uneven roads where man-hole covers protrude above the general level, lack of street lighting, and no disciplined management of garbage. Further, when some civic work is taken up, the citizens have no clue as to who is doing it, why it is being done, how long will it take, and even whether that work is necessary and if necessary, should it be done now. In many cases, minor repairs are taken up during peak commute times causing extreme inconvenience to commuters. The city should be divided into neighbourhoods and each neighbourhood should be given a unique identity. Each neighbourhood should have a registry of owners, residents, and businesses. There should be a bulletin board or website which lists all the civic works that are ongoing and planned. There should be a 24*7 support number to report complaints and already reported complaints and status should be updated on the website. The committee of citizens can be formed to conduct civic audits, every 3 months, to rate the neighbourhood using colour codes – green, yellow and red, and record improvement opportunities and best practices. Citizens of repute who really are willing to dedicate themselves to the cause should be selected to be civic auditors. They can run surveys among neighbours on the quality of various civic services as well as have face-to-face interactions. They can be both voice of the community as well as its conscience keepers. In many cases, certain issues are from the community itself such as driving in the opposite direction as well as taking illegal/unsafe turns. The auditors can prescribe standards so that there is a U-turn at least every 500 meters in populated areas and adequate parking. A lot of issues that involve citizens can be handled by the community itself by agreeing to norms. The civic auditors, civic bodies, and people’s representatives should collaborate to make the neighbourhood citizen-friendly, senior citizen-friendly, commuter-friendly, woman-friendly, infant/child-friendly, visitor friendly, youth-friendly, pet-friendly, and so on. The auditors should call for Maha-Panchyat of the neighbourhood when there are issues of import to discuss. They can also make a list of projects that should be prioritized. These can be put up for funding by local area development funds, funds of government schemes, or funding by the community itself. The community should volunteer to take up certain functions which are perpetually done in an abysmal manner. Many a time, it is seen that the same area gets into a problem, despite repeated road work, and concerned authorities do not do the root cause analysis and take up appropriate remedial action.
The second principle we are proposing is “Say No to Mega-projects”. Over the years it is seen that a large number of very expensive projects and only a few of them result in benefits. These projects such as flyovers, and white-topping of roads cause enormous disruption to the citizens without significantly improving their daily commute times when considered in a door-to-door manner. Neither do they add to their safety nor convenience of commuting experience. The mega-projects should be approved with the mindset of a venture capitalist who says no to a hundred proposals before agreeing to fund a really promising proposal and then double down on it to extract the promised returns. What happens is that whenever a flyover is done the traffic bottleneck shifts to the next junction requiring yet another flyover. This combined with the over-ground Metro work becomes a deadly combination of recurrent disruption. Instead of a flyover, the junction can be widened, and the topology of junctions can be redesigned so that the turning vehicles can turn freely. Instead of focusing only on main roads, the side roads can be widened. It may be cheaper to fund the widening of junctions by paying off those who are blocking it instead of an expensive, time-consuming flyover. An analysis of each route typically taken and what makes it time-consuming can identify minor junctions that can be redesigned which also can reduce the commute times. In general, no turning vehicle should block a vehicle that goes straight. The vehicle mix is another issue. Many schools ply very long buses that hold up traffic. Then there are SUVs and other vehicles that drive in a reckless manner. There are many examples around the world for designing traffic junctions well and guidelines for good driver behaviour. Some of the older BDA shopping complexes can be converted into parking complexes. Instead of shops on footpaths, square grounds can be demarcated with parking all around them that house shops that pay market-access charges to civic authorities based on a pay-per-use model. Another issue that troubles citizens is unwarranted towing of vehicles which smacks of bad intent. Tow-away areas should be clearly marked and they should be very few that indeed slow down or stop traffic. This again should be restricted to peak times. Many areas should be marked for 20 Minute Parking, and 2-hour parking, and where possible the parking zones should be crafted that do not impede the traffic. Towing should be the last resort and traffic fines should also be very rare. Generally, leave it to the community with acceptable norms and increased parking capacity. Another reason for traffic density is the lack of good alternatives for cars. Instead of just Autos, plan shuttles that typically hold 5-6 people which can go around a cyclical route in a recurrent manner. BMTC can also do its bit by assigning its officials to oversee if buses stop in a designated manner and to forestall other vehicles from occupying bus stops. Thus, a fly-over should be approved only as last resort. The other issue which causes a lot of disruption is the white-topping of roads. This is simply not scalable and with poor design can cause waterlogging. The consent of citizens should be sought before white topping roads. In many cases it is seen that already good roads are chosen for white topping, starving a large number of other projects. A good regime of public policy intelligence is necessary which conducts the exercise in an open and transparent manner. Then there are other issues such as regulating recalcitrant auto drivers, taking to task mobile companies that refuse to accept vicarious liability, and pressurize their drivers excessively. We also should avoid fascination for new technology such as steel flyovers, multi-level flyovers without a clear study on the return on investment with 4 criteria- Commute time, Public Safety, and Public Convenience and justification based on Opportunity Cost. Any solution should not be piecemeal. Some metrics that can be used are commute time between two important end-points, average speed in different zones, and the average number of bottlenecks per Km. Other measurements can pertain to the volume of vehicles versus road width reflecting geospatial congestion and relative slow-down during peak times that measure temporal congestion.
The third principle that is imperative is “Moratorium on New Projects until existing ones conclude”. We see in Bengaluru a large number of projects concurrently on-going disrupting the lives of commuters all over the city. Thus the whole city is a work-in-progress. Then there are certain areas where work is ongoing for more than 3 years when it should have taken only a year. Stopping new projects for 2 years can get focus on completing the existing ones. There should be a limit on the number of concurrent projects.
Also, it is important to “Pace the Development and spread the development”, which serves as the fourth principle. As soon as citizens breathe a sigh of relief when one repair work is completed yet another is undertaken in the same area, thus agony for commuters perpetuates. Let there be a gap of a few months instead of an onslaught of projects in the same area. There needs to be a mechanism to announce all the schemes in the pipeline and plan to the affected citizens and solicit feedback on the same. The feedback also should be taken where the completed projects are “finished well” by clearing debris and done with aesthetics and quality in mind. Many places the road dividers look a decade old on the day of the installation itself. In many cases, it is dong the painting job well and ensuring an end-to-end approach. Bengaluru can be a model for citizen participation with its IT prowess. The roads suddenly ending which proved fatal in a recent accident could have been avoided if there are mechanisms to finish the projects well. This may even mean ensuring continuous street lights all along the newly laid road and a clear mechanism of maintenance. At the same time, this should not be a way to disproportionately withhold payments to contractors. It is also seen that whenever there is a hue and cry about bad roads, all the attention goes to certain areas probably that already have good roads. Thus large areas of the city face perpetual neglect and small sections get repeated renewal causing agony to all. Thus it is extremely important to spread the development. Here again, public-policy intelligence with a good mechanism to prioritize projects is extremely important.
The fifth and final principle is to get the Governance of City Right. For this, we need good leadership, structure, teamwork, and a roadmap. We propose that the Mayor of Bengaluru should be directly elected. Thus people will identify with the Mayors and hold them accountable. Being a Mayor is a 24*7 job. Next, to be a world-class city, there needs to be enormous teamwork among different government agencies, institutions as well as the citizenry. A command center should be set up that includes representatives from BMTC, BMRCL, Traffic Police, BBMP, and BDA to address the woes of citizens. There should be publicly advertised helplines and interfaces to provide suggestions and report grievances that actually work. Companies such as ISRO and Google should be roped into assist. We suggest that a mechanism should be evolved to give voting rights to businesses making them visible and vital stakeholders. As the existing mechanisms of maintaining good roads have failed, alternatives need to be explored. One alternative is to look at the task of managing geographic connectivity in a seamless manner and hand over regions to contracting parties which can include government agencies such as border roads organization or a territorial army. Here inner roads of cities can be bundled along with highways thus the same agency can manage the entire region in a seamless manner. India has made enormous progress in Telecom Sector where different sectors were given for bidding to different service providers. There needs to be high transparency on what happens to the property tax that is collected and how it is used for the development of the city. Transparency is equally important when it comes to toll collection. A portion of taxes paid at Petrol Pumps should be seen as infrastructure access fees and should be utilized to maintain the roads in a given locality. All this should be communicated in a simple and transparent manner. There should be a registry of citizens and any illegal occupants should be acted on, in a continuous manner by giving them alternatives. Any illegal migrants should be acted on immediately. In general, population density, quality, and quantity of urban growth should be monitored continuously. Any riot or violent protest can be highly disruptive. Government should have an appropriate urban safety act and freedom of mobility act to safeguard the rights of people going to work as well as the safety of their property and assets. The taxpayers should ensure that they vote in civic and other elections and if not satisfied vote for NOTA giving a strong message to elected representatives. Thus 100% enrollment and voting is very important. Bengaluru should take a lead in doing civic voting using digital technologies thereby facilitating the same. Corruption should be controlled and using citizen satisfaction surveys continuous corrective action should be taken to achieve ecology-economy-ethics balance. Have fair rate contracts instead of predatory ones. Focus on quality, instead of just cost. The city should be promoted as a tourist destination and a good amount of economy should pertain to tourism. It is important to build new lakes and parks in the outskirts. Businesses and institutions should be encouraged to move out to other distant growth centers, in particular those that do not fit in with the theme of the city. Having satellite townships will only Increase cross-mobility. Thus dispersing growth should be as vital as the concentrated and expansive growth of Bengaluru. Certain regions of the city can also be given to industry associations and communities to manage in an autonomous manner, going back to what worked well with public sector layouts. A strong focus on aesthetics and training the vendors/service providers to do any job with a sense of satisfaction is equally important. Coming to the state level, plan growth by launching academic cities, financial cities, textile cities, and so on, which operate in a self-contained manner with minimal commuting. Every district should have healthy job intensity and population density and extremes will only damage the environment. Overall we need an integrated, holistic and seamless approach to the development of Bengaluru within the larger framework of Karnataka’s development.