The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A Bangalore concept to decongest roads

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A Bangalore concept to decongest roads

Staff Reporter

Land in exchange for more built-up area

CHENNAI: : Bangalore is seeking to widen its congested roads and streets through `Transfer of Development Rights', a concept that enables the civic body to acquire land in exchange for additional built-up area.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, the municipal corporation of the city, has started widening the Hosur Road, Bellary Road and Airport Road based on this concept on an experimental basis. It has also identified 90 other city roads for widening.

The concept has been significantly successful in Mumbai and Hyderabad, said K. Jothiramalingam, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner, at a meeting organised by the Rotary Club of Madras on Tuesday. Bangalore's traffic woes have multiplied due to the absence of a "non-road based transport system."

"Chennai and Mumbai are blessed with the suburban railway network," Mr. Jothiramalingam said. "The development in these cities spans 180 degrees, whereas development in Bangalore is a full 360 degrees."

The traffic chaos on Bangalore roads would take a while to clear, but the priority of the civic body was to increase the efficiency of the stormwater network. If the city gets 50 mm rainfall in one hour, the streets are immediately under water. The local body planned to invest Rs. 450 crores to remodel the network, he said.

Bangalore was the first city to establish city service centres for delivery of certain essential services without delay. The centres had done away with the interface between citizens and civic officials for delivery of services, including birth and death registration, property tax payments and building plan permits.

"The satisfaction level of these services, according to an independent study, is 70 per cent. We would like to improve and expand the areas further," he added.

The local body was looking at a public-private partnership to improve the services, inviting private firms to come up with new concepts and ideas. The Bangalore Agenda Task Force, headed by the then Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna was a grand success when it was started a few years ago. It now exists only on paper, he said.

Indiscriminate planting of saplings has been yet another problem. Besides narrowing the carriageway, trees also pose a danger to lives and property. Attempts to fell dangerously poised trees had invited protests from environmentalists. Last month, a sudden squall uprooted 272 trees and brought down 1,232 branches in the city.

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