RMP 2035 Bangalore: Surbana signs in stealth a contract
Bangalore has begun another war of words, with the Bangalore Development Authority and a host of urban development bodies paying for producing more documents that will conspire to work on Master Plan of Bangalore 2031 and Bangalore 2035.
Quietly, without fanfare and without the media reporting it, the Singapore Urban Development Authority, Surbana, has been conferred a contract in late November 2013, for doing the 2035 Regional Metropolitan Plan for the city. It’s such stealth of operation, or the intriguing sense of quiet that arouses public suspicion and ire.
Surbana has not slotted any information
The contract value is not known. Surbana has not slotted any information on its website. The scope and the objectives have been listed to be the same under a term of reference that is not yet a public document. The BBMP has as much a role in the process. The Revised Master Plan of Bangalore (RMP of Bangalore) 2035 is what Surbana is going to be addressing under this contract, preliminary information suggests. What seems like a masterplan for the city is turning out to be, as it has been in every such past exercise historically,a mere land use plan without integration of any of the needs of infrastructure that primarily encompass challenges of energy, water, waste, and transportation. There is also no mention or reference to what the city will want to take on in terms of offering quality of life and making the city livable in the areas of education, health, housing, and food.
About 1000 people, says a city urban strategist, who are corporators and other officials of the development authorities, are holding 10 million people to ransom. The documents that are available, as public information goes, suggests that there are about 47 districts that the city has been carved into. No one is talking of either the carrying capacity of the city or of the existing deficits in city administration or planning and of any game plan to fix them.
The BDA is under pressure that it will not admit, to see that the 2015 plan is validated. There is a flurry of activity within the BDA to ensure that the CDP 2015 bears some current, quick scrutiny–for the Authority’s very existence depends upon the CDP’s extension. Without this critical thumbs-up, the BDA cannot go on with its business as usual.
Words that say nothing
In this battle of verbose documents that artfully manage to say nothing, none of them is talking yet of any vision for the city. There is mention of public participation and of stakeholder meetings, but then the definition of stakeholders, more tacit than express, is that it only covers the multiple government agencies which form infrastructure providers for the city.As things stand today, there is, of course, no room for city civilians as public spirited associations to be recognized as stakeholders.
The fundamental premise that the RMP 2035 is going by is that infrastructure and services are only subservient to the overarching land use plan. Bewails one urban planner, this only serves builder interests and lobbies which want to grab lands. Is it a comprehensive development plan or is it just an outline of a comprehensive ‘existing’ plan, asks another wrily.
There are no guiding principles that are laid down on what the 2035 plan should represent strategically. There is no admittance of the fact that there also ought to be tactical plans which are pegged at four years or some defined interval of time which will ensure that the strategic plan’s visions are held in sight, unswerving. There is then the BDA’s 2031 CDP which is just a rehash of what was put out in 2005 as the CDP 2015 document.
There has been no discussion with any public and professional constituents, or voluntary citizen action groups who are as engaged, committed and involved in urban planning and strategy. It’s been a hush-hush exercise these recent months for an initiative that’s as far-reaching in impact and ramifications.
So what does the BDA and a host of other authorities with sinecures for administrative positions, want to do? What do the other agencies want to do which are part of this larger plan that extends as far as the 7 to 8 satellite towns that girdle the city – Hoskote to the east, Doddaballapur to the north, Kanakapura to the south, Ramanagaram and Bidadi to the SW, Magadi to the west, Nelamangala to the northwest, and Sarjapur, Anekal and Attibele to the SE.The challenge is an old one — that no government agency ever wants to discuss any of these plans with the public until the decision is announced and offers little possibility to reverse. All members of the public are never made aware of what the values and implications are of such directions.
The BDA is under compulsion to see that the 2015 plan is validated. There is a flurry of activity within the BDA to ensure that the CBP 2015 is validated and passed in a hurry, for their very existence will depend upon extension the CDP’s current 2015 document. None of them is talking yet of the vision for the city.
The fundamental premise that the RMP 2035 is going by is that infrastructure and services are only subservient to the overarching land use plan.
There is no admittance of the fact that there ought to be also tactical plans which are at four years or at some defined interval of time which will ensure that the strategic plan’s visions are held in site without swerving from it. There has been no discussion with any public groups or voluntary citizen action groups which are as engaged and involved in urban planning and strategy.
All members of the public are never made aware of what the values and implications are of such directions.
There is no opportunity offered for the large body of citizens who are impacted by it, to confer constructively and co-create a plan.
All we know is what is told post fact in terms of the few reports, doctored or otherwise, that come by the media.
At the core is the tyranny that is inherent to any form of government. There is implicit an arrogant assumption of the bureaucracy and the hubris of politicians that suggests public good lies in the hands of this minority of under a thousand who arrogate to themselves the knowledge and power to shape the destiny that is 500 years old, 10 million strong, and the 3rd largest economic powerhouse in India now.
There’s also a Ludlum-esque series of cover-up’s that ensure the brutality of public expenditure is never seen as anything but welfare spending of tax-payer monies.
How do we get the Govt agencies to come out in the open on these matters that hold such major import and significance for Bangalore?
