B'lore: Sagging infrastructure new govt's first challenge

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Keywords: Traffic, Roads

Bangalore: All politicians have stock responses when it comes to talking of their plans for Bangalore's crumbling infrastructure.

Take for example BJP chief ministerial candidate, Yediyurappa, who was last heard saying that he promises to give his 100 per cent towards the development of Bangalore.

Announcing big plans and big budgets is one thing, but is there enough money for what will be an expensive affair?

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Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha — a non-for-profit institution to include people's participation in public governance — says, "Let's assume we find the money somehow. Then where is the capacity for the institutions to actually go and implement and manage this size of infrastructure projects?"

There's no such thing as a simple answer to Bangalore's infrastructure woes. But what are those worries exactly?

Pollution, traffic and roads are easily the number one irritants for Bangaloreans. But there is a proverbial chicken and egg question here. Wider roads are badly needed, but wider roads will lead to more traffic — so should traffic be curtailed first?

Ramanathan says, "Do we have a traffic problem or a transportation problem in Bangalore? Is there a problem because we have no public transport or because we have too many private vehicles? Is there a problem because we don't have enough roads or because the roads are not built correctly? The answer is actually, a bit of all."

Experts believe an integrated system of transport is needed, with the metro dovetailing into a bus system, but how optimistic is the public that a new state government will change things?

Most people don't hope for much and say that they have not seen much change from government to government and so why should these elections be different. Obviously, not everybody's convinced things will change after elections.