Citizens lukewarm to BDA 2031 master plan

Citizens are responding with little enthusiasm to the Provisional Revised Master Plan 2031 prepared by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

The authority has received just 1,550 responses since November 2017, when it announced the plan and invited responses.

BDA commissioner Rakesh Singh admitted the response was poor, but was optimistic the numbers would increase towards the January 23 deadline.

The BDA is dividing the responses into categories such as cartography, demography and economy, environment, governance, heritage and urban design, land use zoning, physical infrastructure, traffic and transport, zoning regulations, and miscellaneous.

Keep it brief

A BDA official said citizens should send in their responses briefly, and specify categories, if possible. A separate response in each category is advised, he said.

The BDA website is not user-friendly and it is difficult to download plan files, citizens complained.

Many resident welfare associations, historians and government officials are still drafting their responses.

RWAs thinking

N S Mukund, Citizens Action Forum, said members of the forum had just finished analysing the master plan.

"People have not yet been able to absorb what it says. The master plan is a very heavy document," he told DH.

The forum plans to make RWAs aware of what the plan contains, and collect their responses.

Rajeev G, a resident of Jayanagar who attended the BDA's public consultation, said responding to the plan is pointless as what citizens had suggested earlier has not been incorporated.

"I spent about 15 days reading the master plan and realised it is a futile exercise. There is no coordination within government agencies. The master plan is a mere budget speech, giving no details," he said.

Layout switch

The BDA has published a list of Arkavathy Layout site allottees eligible for sites of the same dimension in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout.

It has received 300 applications, and is scrutinising them for allotment in Phase 2 of the Kempegowda Layout.

The response to Phase 2 has been poor, an official said. The BDA opened bookings on December 19.

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More details in Kannada

The BDA web page provides more information in Kannada than in English. That is because the documents are written in Kannada, and translation is time-consuming, an official said.

"We focus more on Kannada in keeping with the orders of the Kannada Development Authority," he said.

Citizens who can't read Kannada say they are missing out on the details. "There are many in Bengaluru who can't read Kannada, but regularly browse the BDA website," said Sampath K, a citizen.

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Jan 23 deadline

Citizens can download a two-page form from the BDA website and use it to send in their suggestions and objections to the plan. January 23 is the last date to file responses.