Bengaluru has launched the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), a pioneering institution intended to streamline metropolitan planning and service delivery. The initiative, backed by the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill 2024, aims to overcome long-standing challenges stemming from fragmented responsibilities among civic bodies and parastatals. The authority officially came into effect on May 15, marking a critical step in India’s pursuit of more efficient and accountable urban governance.
The GBA will subsume strategic planning powers previously held by disparate agencies such as the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Solid Waste Management Corporation, and Metro Rail Corporation. These agencies will now function under a centralised command structure led by the Chief Minister, supported by the Minister for Bengaluru Development, key departmental ministers, and mayors of newly constituted smaller municipal corporations. This governance reset replaces the monolithic Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) with a network of decentralised corporations. Each will retain an elected council but operate under the overarching GBA, which has strategic oversight for infrastructure, mobility, land use, and environmental policy.
While the new system proposes to decentralise municipal functions, urban experts argue that the model may end up concentrating more authority with the state government. Critics point to the chief commissioner-led executive structure and the lack of autonomy for elected mayors as potentially undermining the decentralisation mandate of the 74th Constitutional Amendment. Urban planners draw parallels with international models like the Greater London Authority but caution that the Bengaluru model lacks clarity in the delineation of roles, financial devolution, and coordination frameworks. Questions remain over staffing policies, operational procedures, and long-term citizen participation mechanisms.
Despite these concerns, the GBA has been welcomed by some stakeholders as a long-overdue corrective to a historically fragmented governance framework that has led to inefficiencies in managing mobility, waste, and water infrastructure. The state government asserts that all new municipal corporations will be designed with financial parity and, in the event of fiscal imbalances, will be supported by the state. The city’s new governance architecture seeks to address the historical inertia that has plagued urban governance in India since Independence. Although the 74th Amendment was envisioned to empower local bodies, most municipalities remain financially and administratively constrained, leading to the rise of uncoordinated parastatal agencies.
Urban design experts stress the need for the GBA to focus on long-term planning, integration across departments, and resilience to political change. Lessons from global best practices such as Singapore’s urban planning framework highlight the importance of continuity, clarity in roles, and citizen engagement in shaping sustainable metropolitan futures. If the GBA succeeds in creating a people-first, financially sustainable, and administratively cohesive system, Bengaluru could well become a model for other rapidly growing Indian metros.
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