Last week, I was pretty bewildered by all the sudden frenzy, brouhaha and media attention to the TenderSURE project in the city. The dusty yellow barricades, heaps of debris and all the pipes stacked up had become a common sight to anyone commuting through the CBD of the city. One initially was bound to assume that it was a routine utilities maintenance operation or some kind of footpath relaying or road widening project. However, TenderSURE is much more than that. The Jana Urban Space Foundation (JanaUSP), which is spearheading this project along with several prominent citizens of the city, on its website, says this about the project: “Project Tender S.U.R.E. is all about getting the urban road right; about addressing the issues that have made Indian roads so notorious for their chaotic traffic , potholes, broken footpaths, overflowing drainage,poorly placed power transformers and their hanging, spaghetti tangle of electrical wiring and telecom fixtures. It's about breaking out of the never-ending cycle of temporary fixes that arise from inadequate design and poorly monitored construction efforts. It's about doing away with the ever growing budgetary expenditure on digging and repairing the same roads time and time again whilst never managing to actually enhance the quality of the infrastructure itself, nor the experiences of those who use it; It's about finally taking steps towards addressing the relationship between the quality condition of our streets, and the quality of our lives.”
One evening, after watching a Hollywood blockbuster at a multiplex on Cunningham Road, I experienced hell. It was pouring cats and dogs and it was an unexpected sudden downpour, the kind Bengaluru is famous for. The situation was that of utter chaos. The drains were clogged, the roads were flooded with at least a couple of feet of water, the traffic was noisy and unruly and not surprisingly, stationary. Pedestrians were all over the road due to absence of a navigable footpath on either side of the road, causing even more confusion and putting themselves in danger. The BMTC buses caused huge confusion as they stopped far away from the designated bus stops. It was a nightmare. Large parts of the width of Cunningham Road and surrounding areas have been cordoned off for work on the TenderSURE project. To the layman, all the dirt, dust, muck, piles of sand and towers of tiles and pipes made the situation worse that day. However, the point is, TenderSURE is the permanent solution to such a situation. Had the project been completed, hypothetically, that day, none of the above chaos would have happened. There would’ve been no water logging as the drainage system undergoes a total overhaul, the footpaths would have been wide and pedestrian-friendly enough to accommodate all those people who were risking their lives, the dedicated areas for parking and bus shelters would have cleared the confusion of both the drivers and commuters and the traffic would have moved smoothly.
In such a situation, elements in the bureaucracy with vested interests trying to throw a spanner in the works of the project are condemnable. An interesting case in point here is, the auto-rickshaw driver (of the auto I hired to get back home that night) seemed to be more aware about TenderSURE than a lot of people. He was all praise for the project, in Kannada. A rough translation would be something of this sort: “Why don’t they complete this project sooner, Sir?! They must work day and night and use all available machinery and technology to finish the work. It will benefit everyone and make commuting through the central parts of the city a breeze. We get a lot of abuse from the people, but I hope once this project is completed with all the facilities, happier citizens will mean lesser abuse towards us.” When he could get the essence of the entire project and its effort in creating better urban spaces with the help of design and innovation to improve the standard of living of Bengalureans, why can’t the officials and bureaucracy get it? Unnecessarily creating controversies and objecting to aspects like the width of the footpath is trivial. The BBMP designs and all the hyped road widening projects haven’t worked even a single bit in easing the traffic situation in the city for all these years.
TenderSURE will work and must be given a chance. It will be beneficial if it is scaled up and implemented in a lot more areas and cities across the country. Come mid-2015, if all goes well, we will see the first TenderSURE road operational and running. The first phase will be completed by end of 2015 after which the project will go for a review and taken forward from there. Indian cities have always lacked the required aesthetic design and planning and TenderSURE is an encouraging step towards working on creating better public spaces and better urban infrastructure. It might seem small-scale as of now, but the impact can be huge. The Prime Minister’s ‘100-Smart-cities’ programme can probably take a leaf or two out of this initiative. It is a great initiative by some of the top corporate biggies, entrepreneurs, organisations and civic experts of the city. When the citizens work for the city, the city works for them.
One evening, after watching a Hollywood blockbuster at a multiplex on Cunningham Road, I experienced hell. It was pouring cats and dogs and it was an unexpected sudden downpour, the kind Bengaluru is famous for. The situation was that of utter chaos. The drains were clogged, the roads were flooded with at least a couple of feet of water, the traffic was noisy and unruly and not surprisingly, stationary. Pedestrians were all over the road due to absence of a navigable footpath on either side of the road, causing even more confusion and putting themselves in danger. The BMTC buses caused huge confusion as they stopped far away from the designated bus stops. It was a nightmare. Large parts of the width of Cunningham Road and surrounding areas have been cordoned off for work on the TenderSURE project. To the layman, all the dirt, dust, muck, piles of sand and towers of tiles and pipes made the situation worse that day. However, the point is, TenderSURE is the permanent solution to such a situation. Had the project been completed, hypothetically, that day, none of the above chaos would have happened. There would’ve been no water logging as the drainage system undergoes a total overhaul, the footpaths would have been wide and pedestrian-friendly enough to accommodate all those people who were risking their lives, the dedicated areas for parking and bus shelters would have cleared the confusion of both the drivers and commuters and the traffic would have moved smoothly.
In such a situation, elements in the bureaucracy with vested interests trying to throw a spanner in the works of the project are condemnable. An interesting case in point here is, the auto-rickshaw driver (of the auto I hired to get back home that night) seemed to be more aware about TenderSURE than a lot of people. He was all praise for the project, in Kannada. A rough translation would be something of this sort: “Why don’t they complete this project sooner, Sir?! They must work day and night and use all available machinery and technology to finish the work. It will benefit everyone and make commuting through the central parts of the city a breeze. We get a lot of abuse from the people, but I hope once this project is completed with all the facilities, happier citizens will mean lesser abuse towards us.” When he could get the essence of the entire project and its effort in creating better urban spaces with the help of design and innovation to improve the standard of living of Bengalureans, why can’t the officials and bureaucracy get it? Unnecessarily creating controversies and objecting to aspects like the width of the footpath is trivial. The BBMP designs and all the hyped road widening projects haven’t worked even a single bit in easing the traffic situation in the city for all these years.
TenderSURE will work and must be given a chance. It will be beneficial if it is scaled up and implemented in a lot more areas and cities across the country. Come mid-2015, if all goes well, we will see the first TenderSURE road operational and running. The first phase will be completed by end of 2015 after which the project will go for a review and taken forward from there. Indian cities have always lacked the required aesthetic design and planning and TenderSURE is an encouraging step towards working on creating better public spaces and better urban infrastructure. It might seem small-scale as of now, but the impact can be huge. The Prime Minister’s ‘100-Smart-cities’ programme can probably take a leaf or two out of this initiative. It is a great initiative by some of the top corporate biggies, entrepreneurs, organisations and civic experts of the city. When the citizens work for the city, the city works for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment