Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who is also in charge of Bengaluru Development portfolio, held the first review of city development works taken up under the recently announced “Mission 2022” and Smart City Project on Saturday and set new deadlines. This assumes significance in the run-up to the State Budget.
Senior officials said projects listed under Mission 2022 will be a blueprint for budgetary allocations in the upcoming State Budget. “I will ensure there will be no shortage of funds for the city’s development,” said Mr. Yediyurappa, who also holds charge of the finance ministry.
He pulled up officers for laxity and delays that are inconveniencing the public, set new deadlines and instituted a new monitoring mechanism. The Chief Secretary will monitor the progress of these works every week.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister conducted an inspection of ongoing Smart City Project works in the core city, but ended up visiting roads that were recently completed and not those like Infantry Road, around Ulsoor Lake and Margosa Road, where works have been long delayed.
He acknowledged the delay in road works taken up under the project and said: “I have now set a deadline of May 2021, to complete road improvement works on 32 roads.” Later, in the review meeting, he also advised civic agencies to wherever possible retain footpaths.
Tree parks
The proposal to develop three large tree parks and converting NGEF and Mysore Lamps lands into lung spaces was given top priority at the meeting.
The Chief Minister asked officials to constitute a Bengaluru Environment and Heritage Trust, a public trust to oversee the implementation of the ‘Experience Bengaluru’ project, that will turn the NGEF and Mysore Lamps lands into public spaces. Turahalli Tree Park (400 acres) will be thrown open to the public in April 2021, Kadugodi (102 acres) in May 2021 and Machohalli (98 acres) in June 2021, officials informed the Chief Minister.
Skywalk on Race Course Road?
During the Chief Minister’s inspection of cycle tracks on Race Course Road, students of Government Ramnarayan Chellaram College of Commerce and Management appealed to Mr. Yediyurappa to build a skywalk at the junction to help them cross the busy road easily. The CM immediately asked senior civic officials to consider the request and plan for a skywalk at the junction.
CfB launches campaign for footpaths
Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) launched a campaign to highlight the sorry state of pedestrian footpaths in the city by conducting a tweetathon during the Chief Minister’s city rounds. Several users posted pictures of footpaths dug up and encroached.
“We want to highlight the terribly encroached footpaths and utter lack of coordination within Bengaluru government agencies. This causes grave danger and inconvenience to pedestrians, and shows that walking, which is the biggest form of transport gets least attention in a city with high pedestrian fatalities,” Tara Krishnswamy of CfB said.
