JOIN USGIS to help prepare RTI-compliant revised master plan
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is planning to use Geographic Information System (GIS) as the primary platform for formulating the Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2035 and make it available for citizens to access.
This effectively will ensure that RMP 2035 including the maps and zoning, once prepared, will be available online for the public so that they can see the changes in the planning of the City.
In a document on the preparation of RMP-2035, uploaded on the BDA website, the Authority has stated GIS has been primarily mooted to “enable RTI compliance, data security and enable better implementation and enforcement.”
The GIS platform will be utilised by the panel of nine consultants who had submitted Expression of Interest for preparing RMP 2035. The system will be used in tandem with the “time-series economic, social, infrastructural and spatial database” on the City’s outlook.
A sub-section of the spatial Planning Support System and associated IP Multimedia System will be created, that may well serve as a ‘live’ document. The document will be uploaded for the ordinary citizens to access and see the changes made to the master plan at regular intervals.
The BDA will also provide an RTI-compliant interface for the public to access information on the details in RMP 2035.
This apart, the BDA has come up with a series of new directions, along with the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, for formulating the RMP. The BDA has proposed the formation of a “coordination mechanism” (Committee) to bring key stakeholders in urban planning, economic development and services provision together to provide inputs and review Master Plan preparation outputs.
The Authority has suggested that the Committee be chaired by an ‘appropriate authority’ of the State government.
Meanwhile, BDA has also asked the consultants to be “sensitive to the need to develop a liveable, economically and socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, economically robust and innovative city and involve all key stakeholders, especially the poor and the vulnerable, in its vision, development and implementation.”