Inequality, climate change to be big urban issues

IE THINC SECOND EDITION: OUR CITIES

- MN Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Bengaluru; Naresh V Narasimhan, Managing Partner, Venkataramanan Associates; Nithya Ramesh, Director of Urban Design, JNNU Urban Space; MV Rajeev Gowda, Vice Chairperson, State Institute For The Transformation of Karnataka; Vivek Mittal, Executive Director, Deloitte India; Jaya Dhindaw, Executive Program Director, Sustainable Cities And Director, WRI India Ross Center

MN ANUCHETH: The vehicle population growth in Bengaluru is exponential, whereas the infrastructure to cope with that growth is linear. There is a lack of public transport and not many people use it. One estimate says about 28 per cent of Bengalureans use public transport, whereas, in other cities like Mumbai and Delhi, it's much higher. At least we can reach 50 per cent of people using public transport. There are so many bottlenecks, our road dimensions are not correct and footpaths are inadequate or non-existent. We are not promoting mobility.

What is the fastest, cheapest and greenest mode of transport? Once you start thinking along those lines, the entire focus shifts. Historically, Bengaluru did not have a robust public transport system. BMTC carries about 40-50 lakh people a day. But the problem is that it has the same number of buses in 2024 as it did in 2000, which is 6,400. Public transport didn't keep pace with the requirements of the day. Hence, there has been a tendency to go for private transport. Today, we have the moniker of having the largest number of private vehicles in India. We overtook Delhi in January.

On macro problems with urbanisation in India

NARESH V NARASIMHAN: All the infrastructure that the government can think of when they hear the word development or traffic mitigation is a flyover. The Indian political, administrative, lawmaking and policy systems have been hugely biased towards rural development. Only in the last 20 years have we seen some attention being paid to urban India.