‘Global city’, let down by infrastructure

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has ranked Bengaluru as the “least liveable” city in India among the five Indian cities ranked. It falls behind Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

The EIU, on June 24, released its Global Liveability Index 2022, which ranks cities across the world on their liveability quotient. A total of 173 cities are ranked in the index.

The poor ranking of Bengaluru may seem a bit far-fetched to many denizens of India’s Silicon Valley who, presumably, find the city better than the other four metros that are ranked.

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It is not for nothing that Bengaluru, with a burgeoning population, continues to attract people from all parts of India as it expands on all sides. On several counts, Bengaluru is a preferred place to live but what it clearly lacks is good infrastructure. It is precisely due to its poor infrastructure that Bengaluru is ranked (146) behind Delhi (140), Mumbai (141), Chennai (142) and Ahmedabad (143).

The EIU’s liveability index is compiled on the basis of five broad parameters — stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Stability and culture and the environment get the highest weightage — 25 per cent each — while healthcare and infrastructure get a weightage of 20 per cent each. Education has a weightage of 10 per cent in the ranking.

While Bengaluru, deservedly, scored well in terms of culture, environment and education, it fared unsatisfactorily in the assessment of its infrastructure, stability and healthcare.

It is an indubitable fact that Bengaluru’s poor infrastructure is its black spot. A poor, ill-planned public transport system and connectivity, the pathetic state of its roads with potholes posing risks and causing injuries and deaths to commuters, and an inefficient traffic management system have combined to cause the city’s notorious traffic congestion, which makes commute time much longer than it need be.

It is bad enough that flyovers and the metro came into being late, thanks to poor planning; their expansion and completion is moving slowly. It is baffling why the new airport was not connected to the city via a metro rail early enough.

The fact that many residents continue to rely on water tankers and power inverters speaks volumes about the city’s water and power situation. As for garbage, sewage, toxic lakes and such matters, the less said the better.

The city’s woeful infrastructure gets only worse in the rainy season as trees get uprooted, underpasses flooded, drains overflowing with water-logged streets, unlit roads, a nightmare for commuters.

The deteriorating infrastructure is also due to corruption. A few months ago, the Karnataka State Contractors Association accused the state government authorities and officials of harassing them to pay a commission of up to 40 per cent on government contracts. The Contractors Association was so distressed that it even wrote to the Prime Minister.

Ironically, a whopping sum of Rs 23.51 crore was spent to lay asphalt on Bengaluru roads ahead of the recent short visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But barely a day after it was asphalted, a portion of a road caved in. Poor quality of work or a hastily carried out job? Whatever the reason, it caused a huge embarrassment to the BBMP, forcing the Chief Minister to order a probe.

If road repairs can be executed in record time ahead of VIP visits, surely the authorities can heed the ever-growing litany of complaints of its citizenry to provide good infrastructure in the city.

The deplorable state of Bengaluru’s healthcare infrastructure was exposed during the second wave of Covid-19 as shortage of hospital beds, ventilators and medical staff reduced people to psychological wrecks.

Strangely, Bengaluru has not had an elected civic council for about two years, which perhaps got the EIU bothered about stability in the city. Stability, along with culture and environment, get the highest weightage of 25 per cent in the EIU’s liveability index.

As the Information Technology capital of India contributing to over 30 per cent of India’s IT exports and with a large presence of multinational companies and educational institutions of repute, politicians take pride in comparing Bengaluru with some global cities. It could well be among those global cities, but for the quality of its infrastructure.

The current population of Bengaluru is around 13 million, and with a growth rate of over 3 per cent annually, one can imagine the strain this once ‘Pensioner’s Paradise’ has to bear.

While better coordination between the different civic agencies such as BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, BESCOM and others involved in projects is a must, active participation of citizens and welfare associations in civic matters is imperative.

Infrastructure is key to development and is a vital indicator of how a city has developed. It is high time for the authorities seriously to take note of the dire state of Bengaluru’s infrastructure and do what needs to be done, quickly and efficiently.