GBA planned for Bengaluru with 2 crore population: Dy CM DK Shivakumar

BENGALURU: The Greater Bengaluru Authority was planned and implemented keeping in mind the exponential growth of the city and a population of approximately two crore in the next 15 years, said Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar who also holds the portfolio of Bengaluru Development. Taking part in an event hosted by Bengaluru Political Action Committee (B.Pac) on Wednesday, the DCM reiterated that big ticket projects like Twin Tunnel Road, Elevated Corridor, Road on Stormwater Drain Buffer Zone and Bengaluru Business Corridor from Kogilu to Electronic City will be executed. He said these projects will take three years. The Tunnel Road Project will take four years to be completed as machines have to come from China or Germany, which alone will take about a year. Tomorrow, the issue of small tunnel road of 1.5 kms near Hebbal will come before the cabinet, he said. The biggest problems in Bengaluru are mobility, garbage management, and water supply. Bengaluru is not a planned city. In Karnataka, there are 270 engineering colleges, 70 medical colleges and over 1,200 nursing colleges. Youth, after education, come to Bengaluru in search of jobs, and they need a place. Keeping all the public inflow, GBA was planned, Shivakumar said. Bengaluru has 1.27 crore vehicles. The existing roads cannot be widened. The land and property value is more. Garbage is a big issue; 12 waste-to-energy plants suggested during my term as power minister did not materialise. Bengaluru had become difficult to manage, hence the GBA was brought in, and we have made carved out corporations so that the delivery of service would be faster, said Shivakumar, welcoming criticism from the opposition and the public. He said in the coming days elections will be held for these corporations and said 50 percent of the 368 wards will be represented by women. Women are leaders and decision-makers at home, and they need an opportunity at administration, and hence we arrived at this decision, he said. Earlier, speaking at the session, GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao said that there was limited bandwidth available with the commissioner in BBMP to make decisions. Now that there are smaller corporations and commissioners are available, they are able to address core issues. The issues with roads, street lights, and footpaths, water supply, and garbage are all being addressed in a faster way. There are going to be bigger changes under the GBA, Rao said. He said the funding issues for some corporations will be addressed through coordination provided by the GBA with respective parastatal agencies. Rao also spoke about mobility, which is not a written chapter under the GBA.