More than a hundred citizens took part in the challenge to provide solutions to the problem of public transport in and around Hebbal, as part of a crowd-sourcing initiative by Citizens for Sustainability (CiFoS), in association with the DULT and transport corporations. Of the 109 registrations for the #ABetterHebbal Design Challenge, 10 shortlisted teams pitched their solutions at an event organised at Mount Carmel College on Saturday.
Hebbal was chosen for this pilot challenge as it is a fast-developing suburb with one of the worst traffic problems. A team comprising architects from Cresarc took the first place with their idea ‘Through the Park’. According to Naveen Mahantesh of Cresarc, their idea is a three-pronged approach to deal with traffic congestion: an underground route, an overhead route to dilute the traffic coming in from all sides and a park.
The park will be a space for the free movement of pedestrians. The team also pitched ideas to control traffic, increase the use of public transport and improve last-mile connectivity. “It’s a brilliant platform. You can present your ideas to people who can make a difference. As an initiative, we need such challenges for the city. We hope we can connect with the authorities to make this idea come to fruition,” said Mr. Mahantesh.
The runner-up was Suman Paul, an architect from DKP Architects, for his idea of connecting the bifurcated Hebbal lake and build a loop around it with four outlets to reduce commute time. The second runner-up was Priyanka R., an architecture student from M.S. Ramaiah College.
The jury panel included BBMP Commissioner Anil Kumar, Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) Commissioner Ponnuraj, BMRCL MD Ajay Seth and urban expert Ashwin Mahesh.
Public transport
At a panel discussion, the focus was on the involvement of the public in government decisions and the popularisation of public transport. Anil Kumar said, “Agencies need to reach out, as people are always willing to make suggestions. But government agencies need to act on the suggestions.”
On road congestion, Bhaskar Rao said, “Bengaluru doesn’t have a traffic problem; it has a transportation problem. We are all victims of our urban planning. I can only regulate traffic. I cannot come up with plans to make our mobility easier. There are 13,000km of roads in the city, 44,000 intersections, 800km of arterial roads, 600km of main roads. I have 4,000 policemen to manage these junctions. The city needs a planning body to make plans every year.”
