<p class="bodytext">Even as Bengaluru witnesses unprecedented urbanisation, it continues to operate with a planning framework conceived long before this growth unfolded. The last approved planning document is the Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2015, which itself was an update of the RMP-2005. In effect, Bengaluru has been navigating 21st-century challenges with a map drawn up in the early 2000s. The proposed RMP-2031 was withdrawn due to technical flaws and public opposition, and the subsequent RMP-2041 has failed to take off. For a metropolis of this scale, the absence of an up-to-date master plan is not just a bureaucratic lapse — it is a governance failure. Now, the government has chosen a new path, a fragmented one at that. The preparation of the next Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) has been split between the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), each drawing separate plans for adjoining parts of the same city. In addition, the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority (BMICAPA) will draft its own CMP for about 90 sq km under its control. This means Bengaluru will be governed by three master plans drafted by three agencies with overlapping mandates, and no unifying vision. This is not reform; it is institutional chaos disguised as administrative restructuring.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The dangers are not exaggerated. When 110 villages were merged into the city in 2007, they were incorporated into the BBMP, but never integrated into a co-ordinated planning process. Many of these areas still lack basic civic amenities such as piped water, drainage, proper roads, and stormwater networks. They were absorbed on paper but excluded in practice because planning responsibilities were diffused, and accountability went missing. The city still bears the scars of that fragmented approach.</p>.The human cost of SIR must not be overlooked.<p class="bodytext">Each agency defining its own CMP is a recipe for disaster, especially when Bengaluru’s growth spills seamlessly into not only the now-renamed Bengaluru South and North, but also other neighbouring districts, which are slowly becoming an extension of the city. A city’s problems — traffic, housing, climate resilience, mobility — do not respect jurisdictional boundaries. Bengaluru needs one metropolitan plan under one accountable authority, not a patchwork of competing documents. Fragmentation leads to contradictory zoning, confused implementation, and a future built on ad hoc fixes rather than sound design. If Bengaluru is to reclaim coherence and plan for the next 30 years, rather than the last 15, it must reject piecemeal planning. An updated CMP is the need of the hour because Bengaluru can no longer afford to plan for tomorrow with tools from another era. The city’s future cannot be imagined in fragments. It must be conceived and executed as one.</p>
<p class="bodytext">Even as Bengaluru witnesses unprecedented urbanisation, it continues to operate with a planning framework conceived long before this growth unfolded. The last approved planning document is the Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2015, which itself was an update of the RMP-2005. In effect, Bengaluru has been navigating 21st-century challenges with a map drawn up in the early 2000s. The proposed RMP-2031 was withdrawn due to technical flaws and public opposition, and the subsequent RMP-2041 has failed to take off. For a metropolis of this scale, the absence of an up-to-date master plan is not just a bureaucratic lapse — it is a governance failure. Now, the government has chosen a new path, a fragmented one at that. The preparation of the next Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) has been split between the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), each drawing separate plans for adjoining parts of the same city. In addition, the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority (BMICAPA) will draft its own CMP for about 90 sq km under its control. This means Bengaluru will be governed by three master plans drafted by three agencies with overlapping mandates, and no unifying vision. This is not reform; it is institutional chaos disguised as administrative restructuring.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The dangers are not exaggerated. When 110 villages were merged into the city in 2007, they were incorporated into the BBMP, but never integrated into a co-ordinated planning process. Many of these areas still lack basic civic amenities such as piped water, drainage, proper roads, and stormwater networks. They were absorbed on paper but excluded in practice because planning responsibilities were diffused, and accountability went missing. The city still bears the scars of that fragmented approach.</p>.The human cost of SIR must not be overlooked.<p class="bodytext">Each agency defining its own CMP is a recipe for disaster, especially when Bengaluru’s growth spills seamlessly into not only the now-renamed Bengaluru South and North, but also other neighbouring districts, which are slowly becoming an extension of the city. A city’s problems — traffic, housing, climate resilience, mobility — do not respect jurisdictional boundaries. Bengaluru needs one metropolitan plan under one accountable authority, not a patchwork of competing documents. Fragmentation leads to contradictory zoning, confused implementation, and a future built on ad hoc fixes rather than sound design. If Bengaluru is to reclaim coherence and plan for the next 30 years, rather than the last 15, it must reject piecemeal planning. An updated CMP is the need of the hour because Bengaluru can no longer afford to plan for tomorrow with tools from another era. The city’s future cannot be imagined in fragments. It must be conceived and executed as one.</p>
