What ails Namma Bengaluru?
The recent super cyclone Hud Hud hit coastal AP and Odisha but one look at Bangalore roads and one could be convinced that we were victims to the super cyclone too. Potholed roads, piling garbage, crumbling infrastructure, delayed execution of new projects…what is ailing our city? The simplest answer could be the civic authorities but what is it as citizens who have gotten so much from this city what have we given back? How do we give back and what do we do to ensure we leave a better Bangalore for our future generations?
Better town planning: Layouts and buildings need to adhere to town planning guidelines. This will ensure we have the right amount of roads, parking spaces, community spaces, public transport and security for citizens. Involve citizens in town planning and the perfect example of that was when citizens were asked what they wanted from the Airport and incorporated suggestions into the design.
Civic Citizen Partnerships: Bangalore is blessed with citizen activism and it’s for the authorities to take criticism positively and collaborate with citizen bodies and use their bandwidth to help in governing the city. Citizens can take part in segregating garbage, neighbourhood watches, clean up drives, traffic management volunteers and any other area that the government sees fit.
Charge traffic and parking: The older parts of Bangalore especially CBD is crumbling under the volumes of traffic that pass through every day. Create tolls around CBD and allow vehicles after collecting a toll and also use technology to regulate traffic. We may as well learn from the British on this as to how they manage traffic in London CBD.
Seamless Metro Rides: Ensure that all public transport hubs are connected via Namma Metro and include various fares and fees into the ticket to encourage more people to use these facilities. It is a step in that direction when a Namma Metro station is connected into a shopping mall. In Hong Kong you can check in to your flight from the metro stations so that saves a lot of trouble and lessens the burden of space when these get distributed and you could also buy a metro station pass at the airport so that you can avoid queues at the stations. Thats interdependability…
Smart apps and social media make smart cities: With the explosion of mobile phones it could be easier to manage the city using the social media and apps. There are now apps that will tell you the auto fare, taxi fare, movie timings, restaurant locations and maps will also show traffic flow and routes. The imaginary wall that exsisted between citizens and authorities have been torn down by social media. Everybody from the CM to all authorities are on facebook and twitter and citizens can reach out to them more than ever before.
Use technology to collect taxes, fees and fines: The Bangalore Traffic Police were equipped with Blackberry’s to book traffic violations and this hasnt been developed beyond the Blackberry platform and it should be extended into all mobile platforms so that it allows a wider reach for the authorities. It is also suprising to note that the property taxes continue to fall short of its targets year after year and the authorities should ensure that there is a stringent mechanism to ensure that this gets paid or the penalty of not paying should be as severe as disconnection of utility services like electricity and water.
Use modern equipment: Upgrade to the latest equipment across all departments and this will allow Bangalore to save time and costs. The police in Dubai use Ferraris and Lambourginis as patrol cars and it sends out a clear message to everyone that no one can outrun the cops there. Traffic sensors, cctv cameras to monitor traffic and safety. Crowd source cameras to increase the digital visibility of the city.
Sometimes we have to be the masters of our own destiny and with Bangalore that seems to be the attitude to have.
Raja Mukherjee Head – Sales & Marketing, Concorde Group
The views expressed in this article are author´s own.
