Brand Bengaluru: Problems galore

Although Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has earmarked 45 thousand crore for overall development of Bengaluru in 2023-24 budget brand Bengaluru looks to be a dream. This seems to be inadequate keeping in view all major departments involved in city development. City requires improving of  roads by constructing underpasses, pothole less roads, sufficient water, power supply,  reliable transport and lot more. It needs coordination between all departments. The problem may not be solved efficiently as the allotment is very meagre. In the meantime. Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar recently met with the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) officials and committee members in a bid to solve Bengaluru's traffic issues.  The panel, consisting of Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), Bruhat  Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, Congress leader Rajeev Gowda, entrepreneur and chairperson of Manipal Group of Educationy Mohandas Pai, and other stakeholders, has sought a feasibility report on connecting the ends of Bengaluru with underpasses.

Currently, 50 km of tunnel road has been proposed in the first phase in Bengaluru. A Public-Private Partner (PPP) joint partnership or Built Operate Transfer (BOT) has approved the tunnel project for the city, which will also consist of tolls to collect funds for the contractors. 

 Peripheral Ring Road:

Rebooting the 73.5-km Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project that has been hanging fire for the last 18 years,  government asked Bangalore Development Authority(BDA) officials to explore different innovative financial models to get the project rolling.Bangalore Peripheral Ring Road by BDA is an approved 8 lane access-controlled expressway with a route alignment in Karnataka connecting Tumakuru and Hosur roads via Hessaraghatta Road, Doddaballapur Road, Ballari Road, Hennur Road, Old Madras Road, Hoskote Road and Sarjapur Road.This 100m wide greenfield expressway along with the operational NICE Peripheral Ring Road will form a 116 km bypass around Bengaluru.The project was approved by Karnataka’s state government in February 2022 for development on the public-private partnership design, build, finance, operate and transfer model (PPP-DBFOT). The winning concessionaire will be granted a contract to construct and maintain the highway for a lease period of 50 years following which it will transfer it to the government.PRR project has a deadline of December 2027. Its Detailed Project Report (DPR) has not been made available publicly. Land acquisition for over 2600 acres through private land (farms & housing societies) is underway. As the SiddaKumar government has issued orders to stop all old contracts and tenders, officials are in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the tender or to issue a fresh notification. It is upto SiddaKumar government to take a call immediately on the issue and set right the procedure.

(Dr Mysi Patil is the State Correspondent)