The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has put in place a geographical information system (GIS)-based road history to end unnecessary roadworks and also billing the same work twice by getting a duplicate work code.
BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah said that this “radical development” was the first of its kind developed by any corporation in the country. “With the GIS-based road history, we will be able to keep a tab on all road and road-related works, including asphalting, footpath repair and drain desilting,” he said.
The system has been developed. It is now up to the BBMP’s field officers to key in all the details required, such as condition of road, the date when it was last asphalted, etc., within 40 days. The road history will then be made available on the public domain, thereby bringing in greater transparency and accountability.
Mr. Siddaiah said that the city’s 93,135 roads had been captured on GIS and given an unique identity number. The roads have been classified as arterial, sub-arterial, inter-ward roads (those passing through two or more wards) and roads within a ward.
After all updates to the system, all details pertaining to 13,000-odd km road network will be available at the click of a button.
“The road history will be the ‘mother document’ that the BBMP will share with the other civic agencies for better coordination,” he said.
He said that once fully updated, no new road work will be approved by the system if it is within the “defect liability period”.
“However, during emergency situations, the zonal commissioner and chief engineer can give approval to some roadworks,” he added.
Property tax
The BBMP had earlier adopted GIS-based system to map properties. In 2010-11, there were only around nine lakh properties in the tax net. After the GIS system was developed, 16.5 lakh properties were mapped and 13.5 lakh properties were brought under the tax net. “The remaining properties will be brought under the tax net in a few weeks,” he said.
Mr. Siddaiah said that the civic body had taken up verification of tax paid by commercial properties with more than 10,000 sq ft built-up area. He said that 90 per cent of the properties have been verified and officials found variations ranging between 50 per cent and 200 per cent. Following this, he said, he had directed the officials to verify the tax paid by the 1.65 lakh commercial properties.
The BBMP was also going to match the SAS tax data with the electoral rolls, census data and building plans. “This will help us identify those who have declared property as being ‘self-occupied’ and given it out on rent or have taken up commercial activities in the residential building. We will be able to collect double the tax as penalty from them,” he added.
