NGEF land, industrial heritage in deep decay

Why not turn the sprawling green expanse into an open park on the lines of Lalbagh?

Trapped in its own decay, the sprawling 119-acre NGEF land in Baiyappanahalli is today a monumental mess. Months of unregulated auctioning of its machinery and other valuable assets threatens to hijack a late, desperate attempt to salvage whatever is left of this wasted industrial heritage Bengaluru was once so proud of.

Instead, why not turn this green expanse into an open public park, a lung space rivalling Cubbon Park and Lalbagh and repurpose the built-up infrastructure for arts, culture, theatre or film production? This is the collective yearning of urban planners, architects, artistes and citizen activists, desperate for a complete, dynamic upgrade of the place.

Bengaluru, an ‘over-concretised’ city with its shrinking green space demands that this large tract of land, accessible by both Metro and rail, is re-imagined as a wooded public area, says V Ravichander, an urban policy expert.

There is now a deep sense of urgency. Mammoth warehouses, designed and built with finesse by Indian and German architects and engineers are being wantonly pulled down. Assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees have already vanished.

The skeletal structures of the old factory are awaiting that final demolition.

In despair, a motley group of concerned citizens, architects and urban planners are crying halt. Stop the demolitions, repurpose the entire complex as a dynamic, working public space, they plead.

Assets auctioned off
Completely oblivious to these pleas for a creative transformation of the land, the personnel manning the factory gates have seen the assets auctioned off in droves. Transformers, motors, teak furniture, machinery of varying degrees of sophistry and other assets of German vintage have been carted away for a song.

Whatever is left has been dumped out in the open, to the vagaries of nature. A DH team, masquerading as artefact hunters, found these assets still available for sale near the main gate. But the guards would not let anyone any deeper into the premises.

Chased by the guards, the team ventured inside to find hundreds of electric motors, vintage ceiling fans, machinery lined up inside a warehouse for more auctions. Old factory pick-up trucks and mini vehicles lay abandoned on the sidewalks, rusted and masked by wildnerness.

Halt this ‘open loot’
Pushed by the Karnataka High Court, the government might just work out a plan. But first, the citizens want the ‘open loot’ to be halted.

“The process should be democratically decided. The assets cannot be sold off in parcels. The public should have a say,” contends Raghu Tenkiala, a lawyer advocating a sea change in the government’s approach.

Besides the built-up infrastructure, the greenery is also under threat. “Many sandalwood trees have been felled. We were told that these trees were sometimes cut to light a fire. We didn’t know the liquidation process would be so cannibalistic,” he says.

It is not late even now, feels Raghu. “Preserving what is left, the space and the infrastructure can be modelled for adaptive reuse. Re-imagine the space. Architects and artistes are desperate for open spaces. Many of these structures here are perfect for film productions. What you can do with a place like this is endless.”