Bengaluru: After failing twice to make Bengaluru a smart city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council on Thursday unanimously approved to develop core areas such as Shivajinagar, Gandhinagar, Malleshwaram and Chamarajpet and has sent a proposal to the state government in its third attempt to make it to the list.
It must be noted that Bengaluru lost the smart city tag twice losing competition to smaller cities such as Davangere and Tumakuru.
On the last day, March 30 to register to the smart city competition, the BBMP council unanimously approved the proposal presented by BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad on Thursday.
Presenting the proposal, Manjunath Prasad said “Last time Bengaluru had contested in the smart city competition with plans to develop Mahadevapura comprehensively. But an analysis of the top ten cities which were selected last time revealed that out of ten seven cities had pitched for core city areas.”
He said keeping this in mind we have prepared a proposal to develop core areas such Shivajinagar, Gandhinagar, Malleshwaram and Chamarajpet.
Manjunath further added that last year Rs 6,600 crore was available under the smart city project but this year only Rs 500 crore was available while the remaining has to be borne by the state government through public-private partnership.
Apart from the four areas, the proposal includes development of heritage structures in the core city like Russell Market, K R Market and K C General Hospital. The proposal from the BBMP will be sent to the office of Karnataka state chief secretary, which one approved, will be forwarded to the union government for consideration.
However, civic activists are not ready to agree with the BBMP’s proposal to improve only a few areas in the city. “The BBMP should focus on the entire city instead of concentrating on a few areas. There are three major problems – garbage, failure of rain water harvesting and maintenance of storm water drains – in the city. The BBMP should establish a special purpose vehicle to address these three major issues. I want the BBMP to have a special committee to monitor the developmental works in the city instead of having an outside agency for monitoring,’’ said Kathyayini Chamaraj, Executive Trustee, CIVIC Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, Sridhar Pabbisetty, Chief Executive Officer of Namma Bengaluru has opined that the BBMP should ensure more transparency in its system rather than announcing mega-size budget. “I think the BBMP should spend money well than spending more money,’’ Pabbisetty said.
