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BANGALORE INFRASTRUCTURE

Bangalore is one of the fastest growing cities in Asia and one of the most sought after cities in India by people, companies, multinationals and tourists. The massive growth that the city has witnessed in the last decade is a clear indication of this city being developed to be on par with the most modern cities of the world. The population of Bangalore has grown enormosly on account of migration of people from all corners of India, neighbouring countries and from countries in the West. This has indeed reduced the local population to around 38% of the total population. This also indicates the big heart of the Bangaloreans who have welcomed everyone to this Paradise.

Along with the population the city has also seen great improvements to its roads, highways and other infrastructure. Several flyovers have come into existence in the last 5 years easing the traffic and making travel more easier. While there is still a lot to be done with regard to "deadly' traffic, the Government has indeed been working at a great speed to bring Bangalore on par with the great cities of the world. If things move in the right direction, Bangalore 2010 will be truly a city of the future where everyone wants to live. And life will be more comfortable, at least in terms of transport. But if infrastructure projects continue to become victims of political bickering, the Silicon City is sure to be more chaotic.

Metro Rail, the international airport at Devanhalli, four-laning of Bangalore-Mysore Road, Bangalore-Mysore Express Corridor, improvement in BMTC services, more flyovers and underpasses are expected to make travelling both within the city and from outside more comfortable.

The services and entertainment sectors are also developing rapidly. There is now a greater thrust towards developing world-class properties. Sanjay Khan's Hilton-managed Golden Palms Resort & Spa has opened, as has the Prestige Group's Angsana Oasis Spa and Resort in the suburbs of Bangalore.

Clearly, real estate is a critical aspect of much of the growth. There are opportunities galore for entrepreneurs - the symbiotic existence of real estate developers and business people has seen Bangalore develop into one of Asia's fastest growing cities. The urban landscape is changing rapidly, but when business is good.

Infrastructure Projects in Progress
Over the next couple of months some of the Infrastructure Projects will get finishing touches and expected to be operational by Novemebr 2008 to February 2008. Among them are:

Upcoming Projects
Some of the major infrastructural projects that are planned for the city are:

Bangalore Metro Rail Project
Seven years after Bangalore got on the road to becoming India's knowledge capital, the city authorities finally seem to be getting their act together in improving the public transport system through an ambitious Metro Rail project at an estimated cost of Rs 6,395 crore. After years of delay the Bangalore Metro Rail project is finally set to take off with the Centre giving the go ahead signal to the Rs 6,395 crore venture.

Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Limited (BMRTL) Managing Director says that the first train under the project would run from October 2008, though the completion of all works under the first phase covering a stretch of 33 km would take five years. which would crisscross north-south and east-west parts of the City. Underground track facility would be provided near Majestic area.

The Metro is expected to carry 40,000 passengers an hour in each direction. Initially, there will be a service once in four minutes in each direction. Each train will carry 2,068 commuters. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation officials say that when fully operational, the partly underground system can transport 8.2 lakh passengers every day. With stations located almost every five minutes and with barely 3 km between each, getting from place to place will be easy. And with no parking hassles either.

Vision 2008 - Bangalore Today and Tomorrow
In the one day seminar held recently in Bangalore (Jan 2008) several Government agencies came together and made several promises to improve the infrastructure f the City.

BRUHAT BANGALORE MAHANAGARA PALIKE
BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

BANGALORE METROPOLITAN REGION DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
The authority will take up first township at Bidadi and consequently Solur, Nandagudi, Sathanur and Ramanagaram. Institutional area, government offices, super speciality hospital, Institute of Rural Management and Global Apparel Village will be located near Ramanagaram:

An access controlled link from Outer Ring Road to BIAL with a 180 kmph design speed with flyovers at Challakere and Boyilahalli lakes will be taken up in 2008. In the second phase, it will be connected to City Core Ring Road

BANGALORE METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT CORPORATION

BANGALORE POLICE

Cameras for crime-prone areas
A 10 per cent reduction in crimes. That's what the Bangalore City Police is pointing at as last year's high point. This, when the force is grappling with a variety of problems, the latest being terror threats. As an innovative crime-buster initiative, the police are planning to install secret surveillance cameras in crime-prone areas of the City.

There is the seemingly never-ending line of VIPs visiting the City. According to the police, Bangalore hosts 1,671 VIPs, including 100 heads of State, every year. On the traffic scene, the police are furthering the B-TRAC 2010 scheme with plans to install 150 new signals, 100 monitoring cameras and establish a state-of-the-art Traffic Management Centre. The other plans are:

500 crore tourist attractions for City
The first step towards attracting more tourists to the City has been the state government's clearance for two mega projects in January 2005— a Rs 348 crore Heritage Theme Park near Vasanthpura and a Rs 143 crore Digital film studio near Bidadi. The theme park, to be established by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) will have religion, culture and tradition for its theme. It proposes to replicate the technology used in Disneyworld in US to convey the Puranas, trace the birth and life of Lord Krishna, dungeons of Hiranyakashipu and the famous Narasimha story.The park will be equipped with a 4D theatre, a musical fountain, an aqua screen, theatre of performing arts with a revolving stage where over 100 artistes can perform, a petting zone for children, a story corner and a massive food court with varieties of Indian food, monorail and ropeway.On the other hand, the film studio is expected to be ultimate in modern technology, combining production facilities and entertainment. The complex will have a multiplex, funplex apart from film studios and an institute.

Bangalore Flyovers
Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) threw open the much-awaited Dairy Circle flyover for traffic movement recently.

The flyover connects Lalbagh Road to Hosur Road, ensuring smooth flow of vehicles on this route. Presently, this stretch is one of the busiest traffic junctions with an estimated 12,500 vehicles (passenger car per unit) passing through it per hour. Constructed at a cost of Rs 11.25 crore, the total length of the flyover is 534.82 mts. It also has two carriage ways of 7.50 mts each. The entire flyover rests on 11 piers and two abutments founded on 72 piles, BDA officials said. The BDA is, however, yet to complete the work on an underpass being constructed at the junction.

In December 2003, India's longest flyover was inaugurated in Hebbal. The Rs 65-crore Hebbal flyover is the longest in the country running up to 5.35 km, with two separate carriageways and six lanes and is said to be South India's first interchange at five levels.

The Hebbal flyover is the sixth built by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Built in a record 24 months' time, it boasts of five loops along with a bridge at the grade level and is aimed at decongesting the National Highway No. 7.

Jayadeva Circle flyover was finally thrown open to the public on 16 February 2005. It has taken just over two years since the project was awarded to the UP State Bridge Corporation, to when the ribbon was cut.. The grade separator isn't completed yet, and the flyover is expected to be fully completed by June 2005.

True to the nature of Bangalore roads, the flyover is a one-way, from the Banashankari end towards the Central Silk board (see graphic). They can take a left at ‘ground level' to head to Dairy Circle, and a right towards Bannerghatta.

Traffic coming from Bannerghatta can also climb onto the flyover to go towards the Silk Board. To go towards Dairy Circle they must take the underpass, while they can take a turn left towards Banashankari at ground level.

Those coming from the Silk Board can take a left to Bannerghatta, proceed straight on to Banashankari, or take a right to Dairy Circle, all at ground level.

From Dairy Circle, there are ground level left and right turns to the Silk Board and Banashankari respectively, while the underpass speeds the traveller's way to Bannerghatta.

The Rajajinagar Underpass was recently inaugurated on 25 November 2005. This four land bi directional underpass at Rajajnagar Entrance is expected to provide easy flow of traffic in this busy area.

A new project that would be coming up to ease the traffic from Silk Board junction to Electronics City via Hosur Road and to reduce the time taken would be the elevated road project at a cost of $450 crores.

The project includes construction of a four-lane elevated highway between Silk Board Junction and Electronic City and extension of 16-km ground road from Electronics City to Attibele. The new road will be a six-lane dual carriageway with two-lane service roads on either side.

The following are the recent flyovers/ underpass that have come up in Bangalore:

Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy inaugurated the flyover at Anand Rao Circle Feb 10, 2006 and the airport Road Flyover on 12 July 2006

The Rs. 27.60-crore project has a main carriageway of 647 metres and is 14 metres wide. It is expected to ease traffic congestion by 10,000 passenger car units (PCU) per hour. The fluover includes a five-lane uni-directional carriageway up to Anand Rao Circle with a two-lane one-way down ramp towards Basaveshwara Circle and a four-lane one-way flyover on Seshadri Road crossing Anand Rao Circle and Subbanna Circle.

Anand Rao Circle is among the most congested traffic junctions in the city and the only junction in the city where most Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses pass through.

In its future flyover projects, the BDA has drawn up plans to use some new technology. The authority will have anti-skid surfacing, using German technology. This is to be used at the flyover planned for Trinity Circle.

BDA earlier used time-saving technology such as pre-cast components assembled at site. Some were used at the Krishnarajauram-Whitefield Road flyover and some are part of the Airport Road flyover project. Using pre-fabricated components also reduces cost.

The peripheral ring road, connecting Kengeri and Kanakapura, is likely to be opened to traffic by the end of January. Besides diverting truck traffic and long distance buses away from city roads, it is expected to help commuters in the new suburbs.

Bangalore-Hosur six lane Road
Making the Bangalore-Hosur stretch of the national highway a six-lane road and the construction of an elevated road between the Central Silk Board intersection on Hosur Road and Electronics City will commence in April and the work will be completed in two years.

There was adequate land on either side of the existing road and so there was no need for land acquisition, except for some small pockets. The service road on either side of the existing road was not continuous. The new service road would be continuous till Hosur. Further, several underpasses for pedestrians and vehicles would be constructed to ensure smooth flow of traffic on the highway.

During the construction work on the national highway leading to Hosur, heavy vehicles would be diverted along adjoining peripheral roads, mainly the Hosur-Sarjapur road. The State Government had been asked to strengthen these roads to carry heavy vehicles. Light vehicles, including cars and two-wheelers would be permitted to use the existing road between Bangalore and Hosur while work on widening the road was on.

Work on widening to four lanes the Nelamangala-Hassan stretch of National Highway 48 at a cost of Rs. 620 crores, the 157-km Belgaum-Panaji highway at a cost of Rs. 400 crores and the 74-km stretch of National Highway 17 between Suratkal and Kundapur at a cost of Rs. 500 crores would also begin soon.

Bangalore to Mysore in 90 Minutes
For those who've been spending about four hours everyday in the clogged Bangalore-Mysore traffic, there is good news: Recently the Peripheral Raod has been opened for the 9 Km stretch after much controversy.

Road-widening work on the 141-km state highway has been progressing at a fast pace, with the project slated for completion a full six months ahead of schedule. And the road, designed to take vehicles at 100 kmph, will reduce travel time between Bangalore and Mysore to a mere 90 minutes.

Presently, the quickest way to travel between the two cities is by an express train, which takes two-and-a-half hours.

Upcoming Road Projects

Innovative Film City near Bidadi
The people who brought the Innovative Multiplex theatres to Bangalore two years ago have brought now the Innovative Film City project with movie production facilities of International standards, entertainment zone, and technical expertise related to films & sound and film training institute. This project aims at giving a major boost to tourism industry, film industry & entertainment industry in Karnataka.

The fascinating feature of this mega project are :

Apparel Park in Doddaballapur
Spreading cheer in the new year is karnataka's garment industry. about 30 km from the city, between Yelahanka and Doddaballapur, work is under way to establish a Rs 33-crore Apparel Park. More than half of the cost of Apparel Park project will be borne by the Centre. The Karnataka Government and other investors will contribute the rest. To push the sector further, the state is working overnight to put in place an Apparel Exports Policy. It is expected that Apparel Parks will generate huge employment for the weaker sections and semi-skilled workers in the city where there are about 1,500 garment units of different sizes. Moreover, garments are among the top three commodities/ services exported from the state. The entire project is expected to be completed in the next 12 months with 108 integrated garment manufacturing units -- each of them having at least 400 sewing machines and over 50,000 people are expected to be employed by the industries coming up in the park. The director-general of the national institute of fashion technology has indicated that they would be keen to establish a cell within the park to provide technological inputs to the units, operate a design studio and provide training to managerial personnel of the industries. In addition, apparel leather techniques (alt), located on Sarjapur Road, which provides training to the industry workforce, is interested in establishing a training institute, if land is made available at a nominal rate. This park will be of international standard, as some of India's largest Apparel exporters are from Bangalore and most International brands like Nike, Reebok, Levis, Gap etc source their apparel from here. Garment exports from the state are at Rs 3,000 crore. thanks to the establishment of this park, in the next five years it will grow up to Rs 10,000 crore. While the IT industry employs only technically sound white-collared workers, Biotech is not labour-intensive. Under the circumstances, it is karnataka's apparel sector -- employing around 3 lakh women -- which will help alleviate unemployment. One of the highlights of the park will be a dormitory-type working women's hostel to accommodate 500 women. the good news is that most countries want to shift their manufacturing base to Bangalore. Korea, Japan and Italy are finding it uneconomical to manage their domestic garment industry due to high labour costs and Bangalore is likely to seize that opportunity.

High Tech City
The State Government, close on the heels of the assurances made to the information technology (IT) sector nearly two months ago, has set the ball rolling for forming a High-Tech city exclusively for the IT and Biotechnology (BT) sectors on the outskirts of Bangalore. It is said that the high-tech city, which will be the first of its kind in the country, will have several facilities including those for water treatment and disposal of solid waste and sewage.

It is understood that the plans for establishing the high-tech city were ready, and the novel proposal was awaiting Cabinet approval. The implementation of the project was expected to begin in about a month, and the high-tech city would be ready in about six months. The project would be executed by the Bangalore Development Authority on a no-profit, no-loss basis.

It is learnt that the high-tech city will not only provide land for IT and BT firms but also adequate space for residential accommodation for their employees. Shopping complexes and facilities for entertainment will be built in the city.

A six-lane expressway, connecting the Bangalore airport with the Electronics City on Hosur Road, will be constructed to reduce the travel time from two hours to 20 minutes. IT professionals and clientele of IT firms will not have to go to Bangalore downtown on arrival at the airport. The high-tech city would be located on either side of the expressway, between the Belandur area (periphery of Marathahalli) and the Electronics City, and would be spread over 1,070 acres of land. The cost of the project had been estimated at Rs. 400 crores.

The BDA would invite applications from IT and BT firms, and they would have to specify their land requirement soon after the commencement of the project. The applications would be processed to ensure that the land sought matched their requirements. IT firms would be allotted land for setting up units and provide residential accommodation for their employees. While 1,070 acres of land had been earmarked for the high-tech city at present, there was scope for expansion. The coming up of the high-tech city was expected to considerably ease the pressure for accommodation in some southern parts of Bangalore. As known to thw world, Bangalore is home to more than 1,400 global and domestic information technology firms.

It appears that the ball has started rolling faster than expected. A subsidiary of South Korea's LG Group announced the launch of a fully-owned unit in India's high-tech capital Bangalore to offer software services for companies overseas.

Byung-Chul Jung, president and chief executive officer of LG GNS Global, said its Indian unit would offer specialised services such as software application development and systems integration for global firms. He said the company will invest some two million dollars in the first development phase and recruit 130 people.

Health Care
The Healthcare Task Force of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in partnership with corporate companies and utility providers, is planning to come out with a “joint action plan” to improve infrastructure facilities in Bangalore.A comprehensive plan isl being chalked out identifying priorities for the development of infrastructure. The aim is to improve the standard of living in Bangalore by promoting public private partnership, on the lines of Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF)

The plan is to take up development in broad categories: Emergency Management System, Disaster Management System and Infrastructure Development. Under Emergency Management System, a common platform of the city-based hospitals, both government and private hospitals, will be set up, wherein patients will get a “quick” and “quality” service. To begin with priority will be given for accident care, heart attack, stroke and unscheduled delivery, he explained. Similarly, an efficient disaster management system will be put in place to meet with any exigency caused by both natural and man-made disasters.

With multiplex theatres, large corporate houses and amusement parks cropping up, there is an urgent need for an efficient disaster management system for Bangalore, it was observed. Besides, the Task Force is planning to join hands with Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and other utility providers.

Bangalore Housing
As is well known that Bangalore is the most sought after city in India, it has outgrown the expectation & imagination of its erstwhile planners with regard to Housing and incurred upon itself a plethora of problems.

In the previous five-year plans of the Governments, Housing as a basic need, was not given the required priority needed for a fast growing city like Bangalore.. It was the seventh five year plan that took the first step in this direction by promoting housing finance. Both the KHB and BDA have not gone far in achieving a viable solution to the surmounting housing crisis. and as such, once calm and serene locates have metamorphosised into noisy polluted zones.

With Bangalore witnessing an IT boom in the last decade and with numerous MNC's setting base in the megalopolis, the craze for housing continues with speculating real estate prices and prices of apartments, sites sky rocketing. Bangalore being initially planned for radial development has few concentrated zones with all the hustle-bustle being restricted only to them in close scrutiny, it is observed that areas such as Yelhanka, Sarjapura, Jayanagar, Whitefield etc., have potentialities of satellite development.

While Bangalore continues to greet its visitors with salubrious climate, cosmopolitan lifestyles, bush greenery and a terrific blend of traditional and modern architecture, the need for Housing continues at an even greater pace.