had a guest lecture today by Leo Saldanha of some NGO talking about the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project and why it is flawed. Was a very sensible talk for someone from an NGO.
Had another lecture presenting the other side of the same story. Was delivered by Manjunath (formerly “Master Manjunath” of the Malgudi Days fame) who is currently PR for NICE, the company implementing the project.
Definitely don’t regret the course “Technology, Infrastructure and Market Reforms”. Prof. Narasimha Rao rocks bigtime.
AFter the talks here is what i think should be the state govt’s plan for bangalore:
1. Develop a REALLY outer ring road… one that won’t come into the city’s confines for another 50 years. and it SHOULD NOT be tolled. this would be a good passageway for trucks just PASSING BY bangalore.
2. Develop infrastructure at Mysore, Mangalore, Dharwad and Gulbarga. Set up incenives (something like tax breaks for at least another 10 years) for IT and other companies to shift to these places from Bangalore.
3. Develop the public transportation facility at Bangalore. Build teh Metro Rail or whatever ASAP. Develop dedicated bus lanes and drastically improve frequency and quality of BMTC buses.
4. Once the public transport system is sufficiently developed, impose a “congestion charge” (a la London) and extremely heavy road taxes and parking fees.
5. On an immediate note, encourage companies to have company buses to ferry employees to and from office. Probably incentivize companies where a larger proportion of employees use company/public transport to reach office. Incentives could be in terms of tax or otherwise.
6. Implement the above point for schools also.
will take time and a lot of initiative but if it is done it would make bangalore a much better place to live in…