Even as the BDA kicks off work on drawing up the Master Plan-2031 for the city by entrusting the task to a Netherlands-based company, a section of experts have questioned the need for revising the master plan prior to preparation of a draft development plan for the entire metropolitan area.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC), which was notified in January this year, is required to come out with an overall development plan of the metropolitan area, including master plan related to land usage for the Bangalore city as well as other local planning authorities coming under the metropolitan area.
Thus, the experts feel, the action of the BDA on preparation of Master Plan-2031 would be a “futile exercise, costing dear to the exchequer” while questioning the very premise of the authority in going ahead with this exercise.
The BDA, after a series of deliberations since 2012, had in the first week of March entrusted the task of preparing the Master Plan-2031 to Royal Haskoning DHV following the outcome of a tender process.
Since the existing Master Plan-2015 is valid till 2017, there was no need for the BDA to embark upon revision of the master plan until the BMPC comes out with a development plan for the metropolitan area.
One of the experts, Ashwin Mahesh, said there was a conflict of interest as the BDA would be both the planner and the executer. “The planning should rest with the BMPC and the BDA should morph itself into an infrastructure development body. Even if BDA went ahead with preparing the Master Plan-2031, it would eventually be questioned or negated by the BMPC and hence a wasteful exercise,” Mr. Ashwin Mahesh said.
Another expert, V. Ravichandar, said BDA was only a Local Planning Authority (LPA) till recently and with the notification of BMPC, a constitutional planning body, BDA was mandated to execute the development plan to be prepared by the BMPC.
However, A. Ravindra, the former Chief Secretary and an urban planning expert, told The Hindu that as the law stood today, BDA was going ahead with the master plan as legally mandated.
“BDA is also defined as a planning authority [under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act] and is mandated to prepare the master plan. With the creation of BMPC, there is an urgent need to bring in a set of reforms and iron out multiple agencies doing the same work,” Mr. Ravindra said, while conceding that the proposed Bangalore Metropolitan Region Governance Bill had recommended transferring planning functions to the BMPC.
However, A. Rangesh, BDA’s Town Planning member, said that BDA being the local planning authority is the agency mandated with the planning and has to submit the report [MP-2031] to the State government through the BMPC.
