In a move to decongest Bangalore city, the government is drawing up an innovative urban development project for city cluster development around Bangalore.
The project aims to develop and upgrade eight city clusters around Bangalore to woo investment and ease the load of the State capital at a cost of Rs. 2,100 crore with loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank.
Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake told presspersons on Monday that the project would cover eight towns — Nelamangala, Magadi, Anekal, Bidadi, Dobbspet, Hoskote, Devanahalli and Harohalli.
Officials said the objective was to attract investment in those clusters by developing and upgrading them and “dispersing Bangalore investment” in those areas.
The project envisages development of infrastructure such as roads, water supply, drainages. The Public Works Department has proposed to upgrade the ring road around these towns to develop them as satellite towns.
He said a project is under preparation for State-level heritage based urban development programme with the assistance of the World Bank. Authorities have preparing the detailed project report for estimating the cost.
Suburban rail
Meanwhile, officials said detailed project report on phase-I of the Rs. 8,759-crore suburban rail system for Bangalore consisting of five corridors, including from the city to Tumkur, Ramanagaram and Bangarpet, would be completed “very soon”.
Officials said a special purpose vehicle — Bangalore Suburban Rail Corporation — would be set up for implementing the project, which is expected to ease congestion in the city.
Mr. Sorake said a Rs. 1,760-crore project has been prepared to provide 24X7 water supply to the entire corporation area of Belgaum, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad cities on PPP basis with World Bank assistance.
A pilot project was implemented in these three towns and it helped augmentation of water supply and checked pilferage.
Mr. Sorake said that a project was under preparation for state-level heritage-based urban development programme for Karnataka with World Bank assistance.
He said a master plan would be prepared in phases to project the requirements of cities of Karnataka in the year 2040.
Workshops would be conducted for corporators at the city and State-levels, Sorake said, adding, ward committees and citizen fora would be set up to create awareness among the people on funding in their areas and to monitor quality of works undertaken there, he said.
