The year gone by has been a roller-coaster ride for Bengaluru city, in terms of its civic infrastructure. The city saw a burst of unprecedented levels of activity months ahead of the Assembly elections in May and later entered an impasse that saw all activities coming to a standstill for five months, only to be resumed at a slow pace in the recent months.
Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had allocated ₹6,000 crore for the city under the Amruta Nagarothana Scheme, to be taken up over three years starting 2022-23. However, ahead of the elections, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) issued work orders worth the entire ₹6,000 crore in just a few months time, drawing the ire of many, including political opposition that cried foul over partisanship and financial indiscipline. It left the entire city dug up.
BJP’s poll plank
The BJP relied on this as its poll plank, which seemed to work, as the party improved its tally to 16, from 15, and it gained a 5.4% fillip in its vote share in the Assembly elections.
However, the bubble burst after the Congress came to power. As Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar took charge as Bengaluru Development Minister, one of his first decisions was to bring all undergoing civic works to a halt. Congress has also now reallotted funds to assembly constituencies taking away funds from BJP constituencies and allotting it those represented by Congress. BJP had earlier done its converse.
The Congress government formed four Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to probe the quality of works and alleged corruption in works taken up in the city during the BJP regime. The H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission is also probing the “40% commission” allegations during the BJP regime.
The government holding back clearing pending bills that has now ballooned to ₹3,258 crore, led to a faceoff with contractors who stopped all emergency works like preparing storm-water drains for monsoons in protest.
Including the two election months, when works came to a standstill, works resumed only by September, and more than five months had passed without any civic works being carried out in the city, a rare occurrence. Even now the government and the BBMP have only cleared a minor part of the pending bills and the contractors are not happy.
City just turned lucky
Due to elections and later this impasse with contractors, the city was not adequately prepared for the monsoon and it was feared that heavy rains may bring the city to its knees like in 2022.
However, the severe drought in the State led to scant rainfall even in the city. “Heavy rains this monsoon would have been disastrous for the city,” conceded a senior official.
Brand Bengaluru
Mr. Shivakumar initiated the ‘Brand Bengaluru’ campaign, which garnered a total of over 75,000 suggestions from civic activists, experts and the general public to “fix Bengaluru”. The initiative also came under criticism for doing very little on the ground, to which the Minister said this had created a blueprint of the path the city should take ahead.
Mr. Shivakumar hogged headlines by announcing that the government will work to set up a network of tunnel roads in the city. The project has faced stiff opposition from several civic activists and public mobility experts. However, the BBMP has now called for a global tender to conduct a detailed feasibility study of the project. Mr. Shivakumar also announced a skydeck (watch tower) at the city centre.
