Infrastructure planning: bad job or just bad PR?
Some of us have been drumming up this problem of distance the upcoming Bangalore International Airport has. Adi did a very good job of same here two posts ago, and he drew a response from one Mr K Sriram that included this:
“NICE is … laying a beautiful peripheral road from the Tumkur road to Hosur road … And wants to link up till Devanahalli and also lay a monorail on its median. And believe me it will be ready well before the airport.”
The monorail too will be ready before the airport? First, tell me who exactly is building this monorail, NICE or BIAL? He also said:
“NICE is also building an elevated link to the (Bangalore) city center from Mysore road”
I didn’t know a thing like that was under construction. A road like this (elevated, going through the city) just can’t be ready before the new airport. Think displacements, politics etc etc.
Mr Sriram sounds so optimistic that it makes me feel as if the authorities are doing a very bad PR job of telling us about all these nice roads and things being built around us.
Talk about weaving rings of roads around Bangalore for instance. Who all are building these peripheral roads? What is the justification for so many rings? And how about the arterial roads that should connect these peripheral roads – who will build those and when?
I am sure these questions have good answers, but is it just me who is confused and ill informed here? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing; see how we bloggers are making things sound negative or positive as we please. And city’s newspapers too seem to be making more of a business out of disbursing infrastructure news in bits and pieces.
Another example: take the very exciting link road being talked about here. There isn’t much relevant information about it on the amateurish webpage NICE has. See if you can figure the route this road will take, or any mention of timelines. Tell me the last time you heard a newspaper talk any ‘real’ news about this link road.
So the question I have is this. Is Bangalore’s Infrastructure being developed in unplanned, haphazard and chaotic way? Or is it just that the government has a very bad PR department.
The answer: I think a bit of both.
When they dont care abt dvlpmt itself, why do u think they will spare time 2 do PR etc?
the ring roads are needed ‘coz almost all of blore’s major arterial roads are actually some of the most important segments of road networks in the whole of india as they connect mumbai and the north with the rest of south india. for e.g., naamakkall in TN is one of the biggest transport hubs in all of India.
Silkboard,
Mr. Sriram says that NICE “wants” to link upto Deanahalli and also lay a monorail on the road. Maybe there are some Government obstructions to that. Politics as you said seems to be ruining the good work that a few of them want to do.
It’s quite obvious that NICE doesn’t know how to make websites, but they seem to be damn good at planning and executing roads! Let’s wait and see if they actually realise whatever they claim to be doing.
Tarle – I am not sayig no to peripheral roads. But you need nice “radial” roads to link these peripheral roads. that would make it a good network.
Something does not seem nice about NICE. May be that Mr Kheny is too confrontational – I dont know. But both the parties have to have some hand in this 10+ year delay. We tend to blame it all on just ‘those’ politicians.
Get me right, I am not defending Gowdas. But let us not hero worship NICE either.
yep, ever since i have started following these things, one thing that has irked me has been the lack of transperancy of the BMIC. Their website was last updated 6 years ago. No progress report. No status report. No litt. on their problems. etc.,
The only insight one gets is from what ever reports ESG has on their sites and that is all negative wrt NICE.
The only views I have heard from the NICE camp come from people in deep know of this and those who have extensively interacted with Kheny. Such people tend to be sanguine about the project.
Also, it has become fashionable blindly take a stance opposite to what the Gowdas take. They are politicians like any other to be sure, but they represent a real and significant view on all these.
oh btw,
i dunno on what basis that other guy in adi’s blog was talking about nice and airport connectivity.
first of all nice has mandate only for the ring road connecting TMK rd to HSR rd. There is no other component to it atleast as of yet.
The monorail thingie was just a proposal.
Infrastructure Planning – Bad Ugly job. PR is not needed the public who use the infra know that the infra will speak for itself.
Scarlet, that theory sounds good, because public would know good infra on seeing it, PR or no PR.
But here, I was specifically talking about infra planning. I am not happy with the way ‘they’ communicate their planning activities and decisions. Why do I crib? Because I want to participate in that process.
Unless you and me participate in the planning exercise – how can you expect ‘satisfactory’ implementations? And for me to participate, I first have to know what’s cooking. Oh yes, after that, we will talk about how “exactly” to participate.
What say?