Is this the Silicon Valley of India?

Since the days when Infosys and Wipro became brand names, there is only one thing we have been hearing - Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India. But is it really so?

For starters, Bangalore does provide a huge number of employment opportunities to people. Such is the boom in the software sector.

And Bangalore lies at the heart of that boom. Although I am not too sure of the figures but my guess would be that a major share of the software revenue in India comes from Bangalore.

The all-year round pleasant weather of Bangalore has also been a factor which has helped to attract a huge number of multinational software firms to set up their bases here.

But that is where the good news ends. There are a huge number of problems crippling the city.

Ever since the software industry has grown in the city, there has been a complete lack of vision by the city developers/government to upgrade the infrastructure that would be required by the city to cope up with the pressure of its astronomical growth.

This is where the planners in the NCR and Maharashtra have done their bit or have been lucky enough by having Gurgaon/Noida and Navi Mumbai at their disposals respectively so that the city infrastructure isn't crippled any further.

This era coinciding with the politically most unstable period in Karnataka hasn't helped the cause of the city either. There has been no political will in developing Bangalore as it just contributed too few seats to the state legislature although that has changed post the delimitation process.

The present situation of roads in the city is very bad - from the quality of roads to its capacity to handle the current amount of traffic in the city.

At peak hours it can take any person up to an hour to cover just a couple of kilometers. Even the public transport system consisting of a few number of buses and the auto-rickshaws is in shambles.

Even in the auto-rickshaws over-charging of passengers and refusing to go to a particular location has become rampant. Even the construction of the metro rail has come of more as an afterthought.

The pace at which the construction is going, it doesn't seem that it would complete on time(sorry for the sarcasm, I'm just comparing it with the pace of work of the Delhi metro).

Bangalore was a city where power-cuts were unheard of but nowadays a number of areas face regular power cuts. The demand for power in the city has grown exponentially but the supply has remained constant and if anything is not done soon enough, Bangalore would soon face a huge power-crunch.

Many people have told me that 10 years back Bangalore used to be a beautiful city and the migration into the city due to the software boom has destroyed it.

But if a city truly has to become a city on the world map, then it must embrace its new residents. I don't blame either the original inhabitants or the migrants for this mess, but the system because its their responsibility to provide their services in lieu of the taxes paid by the people.

Now, everyone must be thinking I am bashing the city too much. But there's a long way to go if Bangalore is really to compete with Silicon Valley.

The infrastructure needs to be improved. A number of satellite towns need to be developed so that any further growth which takes place does not put any additional pressure on the already overused resources of the city.

The companies must be given incentives to setup at the outskirts/suburbs. Any new development in the city should be properly planned. The government and the municipal corporation should come out with a master plan for the city(although it should be more independent and not populist unlike the Delhi master plan).

The public transport system which is in shambles needs to be overhauled. People must be given alternatives to travel in their private vehicles.

I liked one of the suggestions given by the Traffic Commissioner of staggering the office timings so that all the office going traffic doesn't clog the roads at the same times.

Having different times for offices may just help the situation a bit.

Although saying all this seems to be too simplistic, but tough situations needs measures to be taken and I sincerely hope that the new government does take those measures so that Bangalore becomes a truly World-class city.

It would require the active participation of both the authorities and the people alike.