The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is expecting a record property tax collection this year.
That is the good news. The bad news is that BBMP proposes to spend a large portion of this amount, that is about Rs 700 crore, on white-topping over 70 roads. While the collection during the last fiscal was over Rs 3,300 crore, the target for this year is Rs 4,600 crore.
While BBMP deserves a pat for collecting taxes well, the decision to sink a substantial portion of the additional funds it expects to collect on white-topping raises many questions.
What’s worse is that many of the roads that the civic body proposes to rip apart and re-lay with concrete are already smooth and well-maintained roads.
A case in point is the 2.2-km-long MG Road, which the BBMP plans to white-top at a cost of over Rs 45 crore.
This, at a time when many other roads in the city are in urgent need of repairs while several in the city’s outskirts are not even motorable.
Commonsense dictates that the BBMP should first give attention to such roads rather than to those that are in top condition.
The bigger question, however, is whether these concrete roads meet the conditions laid down by the BBMP’s own Bengaluru Climate Action and Resilience Plan (BCAP) which aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
As part of the plan, BBMP has established a dedicated Climate Action Cell and introduced the #BluGreenUru campaign to encourage citizen participation in conserving, restoring, and integrating Bengaluru's natural infrastructure.
However, neither the cell, nor the residents welfare associations of the areas concerned, nor citizens at large have been consulted about white-topping roads or its impact on climate change.
The government argues that white-topping is cost-effective in the long run as it has a lifespan of 20 to 45 years. White-topping of a one-km stretch costs Rs 9-10 crore as against Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore for asphalting. Moreover, Bengaluru already has the dubious distinction of being one of the most congested and dusty cities in the world.
If 70 main thoroughfares are dug up to be relaid, one can imagine the nightmare it will be.
For some reason, the BBMP believes that its primary responsibility is to build roads, while other pressing responsibilities like schools, primary healthcare centres and garbage clearance can be allowed to go to seed.
There is already a belief in the public mind that politicians across parties and even bureaucrats are obsessed with white-topping due to the huge kickbacks that they allegedly receive. Instead of strengthening this suspicion, the BBMP and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar should ensure that the additional funds are deployed where they are needed the most, and wisely.