GBG Bill: Panel moots splitting Bengaluru into 7 city corporations

Bengaluru: Bengaluru will have up to seven city corporations with terms for the mayor and deputy mayor fixed for 30 months, according to the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, whose draft was tabled by a joint select committee in the Assembly on Wednesday.

The original Bill had proposed up to 10 city corporations within Bengaluru while the mayor-deputy mayor’s terms were fixed at five years. Tabling the report, committee chairperson and Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad said the Bill would benefit Bengaluru and improve governance in the city.

After the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill was referred to a joint select committee in July 2024, the 13-member joint select committee, headed by Arshad, was formed to review the Bill. After the review, the final report prepared by the committee was submitted to Assembly Speaker U T Khader on February 24 just a week before the Legislature session commenced on March 3. 

Besides changes to the terms of the mayor-deputy mayor, the report, tabled by Arshad, has brought in other key changes like the composition of Greater Bengaluru Authority - a planning authority - which will now have as its members the chief minister and heads of BDA, BWSSB, BMRCL, BMTC, Bescom and Bengaluru city police commissioner. The original Bill had Bengaluru affairs ministers like Transport, Energy, Home Affairs, Urban Development as members, who have now been omitted.

The report further stated that each city corporation should cover a population not less than 10 lakh and the population density should be 5,000 inhabitants per square kilometre.

The revenue generated from the area for the local administration in the year of the last preceding census should not be less than Rs 300 crore per annum, it said, adding that each corporation should have 50% employment in non-agricultural activities.

Tabling the report before the Legislative Assembly, Arshad said that when the BBMP was established in 2008, Bengaluru’s population was 70-75 lakh, while in 2025, it has reached 1.50 crore with about a crore vehicles. “With a single mayor whose tenure at present is just 11 months, and just a single commissioner, it is not possible to do any justice to the  city’s development. We need a coherent administrative set-up to run a city of mammoth size of 786 sq km. The city needs a decentralised administrative set-up in order to bring in more transparency and accountability,” he said.

He also added that the co-ordination between various agencies - BWSSB, BMTC, Bescom, Metro and others is required.

According to the report, each city corporation would have a mayor, a commissioner, a joint commissioner, standing committees and ward committees. Each city corporation in the Greater Bengaluru Area should be suitably named with a common prefix ‘Bengaluru’, like -- “Bengaluru South City Corporation”, “Bengaluru East City Corporation” and so on.

Both Opposition parties -- BJP-JD(S) -- have already made it clear that they would oppose the ruling party’s decision to restructure the BBMP.