Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Yediyurrappa acts on Bangalore's infrastructure woes

It's a significant day because soon after coming to power, Yediyurrappa gave approvals to several projects in a single day. However, it needs to be seen if he monitors them like S.M. Krishna did or leave it high and dry. One good thing Yediyurappa has done similar to Krishna is that he single handedly is in charge of Bangalore's Development.

1) Integrated Water Management scheme -use water from selected lakes, filter it (using Special Ultra Filter Membrane Treatment), and supply the same as potable water. This will be in addition to Cauvery water.

2) Golden Quadrilateral for Bangalore 16-km North-South corridor connecting Hebbal to Madivala through Minsk Square and Vellara junction and the 12-km Bangalore East corridor connecting Kodihalli and Kundalahalli through Vellara junction. Approval has been granted (Thank god at least approval is over..Otherwise it would have taken years to even reach approval stage). The experts of BDA, BMC have unanimously concluded that it is the best way to decongest the 2 crowded areas of Bangalore. Fortunately, there is no need to acquire more land (and hence no related problems). It will be made on the existing roads. Unfortunately, people might have to see more road digging and diversions.

This project is being done under Swiss challenge method in which private player who bids first will be given priority.

3) Approvals for speeding Metro, elevated Electronic city highway. A new IAS officer has been appointed. Metro in Bangalore compared to Hyderabad and Mumbai is progressing very slowly.

4) High speed rail link has been approved that connects city with the new international airport that will reduce traffic time to 25 minutes. I wonder why rail link? It is good, but the immediate thing that needs to be done is the road. That is faster to implement than a rail link.

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