Plan Bangalore 2025

The concern about Bangalore’s megacity status is its infrastructure. The industry is garnering government support to a "totality" plan worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore over the next 11 years.

By 2050, India will be a $34 trillion economy even considering a 4.5-5 per cent growth rate. Because Karnataka is a "knowledge state", its consumption and spending is higher than the national average. While its population is only 6 per cent of the nation, its growth rate could be about 10 per cent of the national rate. This will be equivalent to India’s current turnover! To help the government understand the potential of this growth, we have been in dialogue with them.

As industry and civil society, we need to help the government in totality planning. CII has written a plan for developing Bangalore’s infrastructure. This is a Rs 240,000 crore project, of which a third will come from new taxation to the real estate industry-we have obtained the industry’s agreement to the new levy, another one-third will come from the state and the Centre. Bangalore will construct about 120 crore sq ft by 2025, even if we consider a highly conservative growth rate of 4 per cent. The construction cost will be about Rs 500,000 crore, so Rs 110,000 crore would accrue from the additional taxes alone, of which the state spends Rs 80,000 (1/3 of the project cost-this only amounts to around Rs 5,000-6,000 crore per year, which is less than the current amounts). Impact fee would be around Rs 55,000 crore. The remaining amount would ensue from service fees from the metro rail, etc, which can be borrowed. That way, we don’t overburden the existing institutions. Instead, each department becomes financially independent of the state government. The government is happy with the proposal, especially since we have only adapted many of the ideas that already existed in the state government’s own reports. We conducted feasibility and cost studies to derive our present proposal. We are going step-by-step, garnering support from the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and other stakeholders.

The plan is to treat the city in its totality, so as not to be lopsided in development. Even if implementation takes place on a piecemeal basis depending on funding and other circumstances, it only happens as a part of an overall "totality" plan. Whether it is for Bangalore or for the state in general, the model we are suggesting is one of economic viability and justified by economic growth and employment.

Kiron D Shah, the author, is Convenor-Infrastructure Task Force, CII Karnataka, and MD & CEO, Velankani Infrastructure, a New Jersey, US- and Bangalore-based group that owns the 162-acre SEZ in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. As told to Infrastructure Today.