The Karnataka government’s approval for construction of 11 more flyovers in Bengaluru is not as per the Constitution, and infrastructure woes in the city are the result of crises in the institutional framework of urban planning. Civic activists and urban experts said that the flyovers are disastrous both in the context of good governance as well as urban planning.
According to the 74th Amendment of the Constitution, all city planning activities should be done by the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) which will integrate the plans prepared by local bodies within the metropolitan area. However, instead of MPC, experts said that the state government-controlled development authorities who undertake the task of urban planning.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai recently announced that the state government approved the construction of 11 more flyovers in Bengaluru to decongest traffic. For the first time in the history of the city that 11 flyovers s have been sanctioned in one year.
According to the 74th Amendment, MPC is responsible for the development plan for metropolitan cities with a population of over one million, with at least two-thirds of its members to be elected local representatives.
Another mobility expert said the proposal shows a lack of knowledge of the state government and that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), which seeks to integrate and manage the city’s urban mobility, is a better organisation to deal with this.
The experts stressed that all transport policies point out that flyovers are not the solution and one can’t keep increasing the road space to address congestion. Public transport is an option to address this so that one can move people away from cars.
