Implementation will be key to success

Budgets can be viewed as statements of intent or a statement of accounts. Every year, the latter is invariably a mention of a grab bag of projects and thousands of crores allocated to them that is at variance with the lived reality on the ground. This year is no different. However, there are a few announcements that stand out and are welcome.

Providing 350 acres in Yelahanka for a Lalbagh/Cubbon park kind of lung space is heartening given the pressures from various land lobbies. It has taken centuries for the leadership to think of large lung spaces!

On a related note, one hoped that there was emphasis on a sustainable, environment-friendly master plan for the Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority area which could make for a twin city that avoids the mistakes of Bengaluru’s flawed development model.

A Green Expo over 105 acres proposed in NGEF should allay fears of using that space for traditional real estate development. It might be prudent to consider the bulk of the NGEF spaces as a flexible public use space that can allow a multitude of uses over any rigid, single-use conception.

The K-100 Citizen waterway is another long-overdue initiative. Just stopping sewage from flowing into the stormwater drains will make a world of a difference to the populace alongside the drain and the lakes. There is the inevitable mention of Rs 1500 crores for Storm Water drains – this kind of mention has been on for nearly two decades and we still have a stormwater drain that is far from ever getting completed. Further, the emphasis on just the drain over an integrated watershed management view to fix inevitable future flooding of low-lying areas continues to be myopic.

There is a sense of déjà vu when one hears promises in respect of Metro, Suburban rail, Peripheral Ring Road (PRR), Layouts et al. The delays are par for the course leading to significant cost escalations. The PRR was originally one-fourth of the current estimates back in 2004. The choices too at times could be better – the Suburban Rail needed to prioritise access to the airport which has not happened.

Every year the State decides on the amount and the projects that need to be done by BBMP. This is not a particularly desirable decentralisation process. That said, implementation will be the key to success and on that count, recent memory of time overruns and quality issues does not inspire.

(The writer is an urbanist.)

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