COMMENTS

We have an underutilized central business district. Center of the city today is

1. neither growing to be a major job area,
2. nor is it being groomed to be a residential region.
3. And to make things worst, nor is this under utilized CBD prividing any easy passages (rails or roads) for quick cross town connectivity which is a big problem today.

With Metro, we will have our CBD do at least one of the above 3 items (#3) for us. But will Vidhan Soudha, recreation (cricket, pubbing, parks) and shopping be enough to sustain the investments made in Metro? Cross town commutes alone can't sustain the Mega Metro project.

CBD needs a purpose. And that purpose can't just be to provide lung space for those living on the peripheries.

This may sound like a very anti-green statement. But it is not. Oppose any job-generating construction at BTC (or similar) today, and you would most likely be demonstrating against un-sustainable Metro project 5 years from now.

From planning perspective, our CBD badly and urgently needs a role, and a purpose. Central City station, Central Bus Stand, Government buildings - these were good enough for 70s and 80s when you and me were growing up in our shanti towns and villages all around the state and country. Change is needed, and needed right now.

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 Given that 4 lines meet at Majestic, some serious FAR reworking is needed.  Many residential places will be just 20 minutes on the Metro from Majestic.   

Similarly MG Road needs a revamp.  

Srivathsa

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KSRTC is planning to have multi storry business center on the 20 acre at the existing KSRTC Bus stand at Mejestic, this plan is going on for over  4-5 years and no progress is made. May be due to integration with METRO &  KSRTC Bus stand  This is suppose to be a  20 storry building with huge office space, for car parking.

BTC should be converted into good public park  with under-ground parking  & some good open theate for performing arts and Drama.  Compelet area should be maintained as forest only. We can not  think every thing on economical way. BTC open lung space is an future investment  for Bangalore. 

If we see the space arround Effile tower  in Paris or Central city in Amsterdam, they have maintained  huge open space for public to use.

Similarly, at all METRO staions, they should plan for office space on multi storry similar to Navi-Mumbai  Harbor Line stations  : Belapur, Vashi, Nerul and Panvel. Similalry they should provide Helipad  on few stations at  Jayanagar,  Mejestic, on Mysore Road.

I am not sure, our so called planners have learnt any lessons from Navi Mumbai Railway Stations ( constructed way back 1994-96 ) and Delhi METRO stations.

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Fair enough Sanjeev, can build a large park at BTC, who doesn't need lung space. However, if not the BTC area, unless someone revamps the CBD in other ways (1 large building at Majestic, that too being planned and built by the government, is not enough), we may end up in funny planning situations later.

Transportation investments seem to assume that there is a CBD

• Metro converges there
• City station is still situated there
• Newly planned HSRL starts at Central District
• Bellary Road has been spruced up, but only till the CBD

But let us get real please, the crowds these days increasingly live or work at other dense pockets in the city. I bet if you do a survey of traffic going to the airport (if business traffic can be defined that way), only a small part would originate or terminate at the CBD. When was the last time you went shopping to Majestic for something!?

Lung Space is not about multi square mile wide open courtyards alone. Large new parks do help, but Lung Space feel comes from gaps between buildings, small parks here and there, proper setbacks from roads, pavements wider than the roads, tree lined along the roads etc.

How many large parks have been built where people are actually prefering to live or work these days? Show me some new layouts on the peripheries where you have either large new lung space, or that Lung Space feel? I can only think of HSR layout on my side of town (south, east), and perhaps new yet to be packed stages of Banashankari.

You need Lung Space where you require it. Yes, as a rule, it should be all open and green everywhere. But things are not as simple. Artificially situated lung space in CBD is going to kill 3-4 times the lung space on the peripheries because you would force offices and houses farther and farther away by making the CBD artificially more un-affordale.

Sit back and think, and push for a revamp of CBD. BTC provides one chance. And few of us have been saying for ages - moving out Government offices as far away from CBD as possible is another doable measure. Most other options require government to force or encourage displacements, much harder job to do.

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SB well put.

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