If Dasarahalli could easily be mistaken for a slum, the Peenya Industrial Area (PIA) pocket stands as an oasis in a desert. A hub of small scale industries, and referred to as one of the largest designated industrial area in the country for good reason, PIA's transformation in recent years should stand as a model.

Roads are developed, a working women's hostel is being built, bus shelters are coming up, and a well-planned solid waste management is in place. The projects have changed this part of Dasarahalli thanks to the Peenya Infrastructure Corridor Upgradation Project, a Rs. 26.30-crore initiative of the Peenya Industries Association, a programme where the Central Government contributed Rs 19.70 crore, and the State Government Rs 2.65 crore. The beneficiaries chipped in with Rs 3.95 crore.

The project objective is clear: To provide better roads, tool room, material testing lab, street lights, bus shelters, solid waste management, a Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence, Centre for Information and Marketing Assistance and a hostel for working women.

Association president K V Rajendra Kumar recalls how autorickshaw drivers would refuse to take customers to Peenya because of the bad roads. Yet, today, the improved infrastructure has pushed up land prices here from Rs 1,500 per sqft last year to Rs 3,000 now.

Outside this pocket though, the BBMP has apparently made no difference to Dasarahalli. An industrialist put it frankly: "It seems the Palike included new areas with the only intention to generate more revenue. Earlier there were many unauthorised business establishments. Now the Palike is bringing all of them in the tax net. But basic amenities continue to be inadequate."