The Karnataka assembly election 2018 campaign is in full swing. Media and election pundits say this assembly election is a ‘litmus test for PM Narendra Modi’. From what I recall, every assembly & by-election since May 2014 has been seen as a litmus test for the Prime Minister.

We can safely ignore the Manifesto of all parties. Nobody ever revisits it after the elections. Nobody questions the government on election promises. However, some groups and individuals in Bengaluru have “worked with” the elected government to draw its attention to infrastructure problems we face on a daily basis. Kudos to these volunteers.

Over the decades, every government (irrespective of the party) has contributed to the growth of the state, especially Bengaluru. We are a major Knowledge IT Hub worldwide today. The government’s contribution cannot be ignored.

Elections will be held on May 12, with counting on May 15, 2018. For complete coverage of Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018, click here.

The incoming government, to be sworn in in May 2018, has a lot of work to do.

1. We don’t have a single tech center in our state outside of Bengaluru. Sorry, Mysuru is nowhere near being labeled an IT hub. In the same 5 years, Pune, a city similar to Mysuru, has become a substantial fintech center.
2. Even if we could not build new roads, the government has not worked on solutions to properly manage the key tech corridors. In Bengaluru – Silk Board junction (see this hilarious short movie!), Marathahalli, Graphite India Road, ORR near Manyata are all world-class bottlenecks.
3. Bengaluru lakes are in bad shape. Please see this excellent report from United Way Bengaluru (Disclosure: I am associated with UWBe).
4. Bengaluru’s failing infrastructure has to be fixed. A short spell of rain floods our roads.
5. Bellandur Lake has to be fixed. We cannot have a lake froth on the streets! Lack of willpower and corruption is the only reason for this lake to be spewing venom for years.
6. Solid Waste Management: Bangalore city generates around 5,000 MT/day of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Clearing of garbage is a huge problem. Dumping it to nearby villages is not the solution, villagers have been protesting.
7. The rankings of the educational institutions in Karnataka are not that impressive.
8. While the country can be proud of all villages being electrified, most rural parts and small towns in Karnataka still face power cuts. How will they fix this?
9. MLAs should work with various NGOs to improve education and the environment (lakes). Many well-meaning NGOs need to be tapped. I believe the Government and MLAs need to take the first step.

A deep dive into a few of the topics gives a clearer picture of the pending work.

An Unhealthy Bangalore Due To Traffic Jams

The government is missing the point. Possibly they are not missing but don’t care – people spending endless hours on Bengaluru roads is a massive loss of productivity,

• 1.18 million residents waste 600 million hours per year, causing a loss of Rs 3,700 crore [TOI]
• The average speed of vehicles: 11 km/hour (6.8 m/hour)
• Fuel loss: 2.8 lakh litres per hour, which translates to Rs 50 crore per annum.
• 1,500 new cars are added to Bengaluru’s roads every day.

But the most important point everyone is missing is – our health, it is deteriorating. Unhealthy people are less productive, we work less, we earn less, and we spend less. Bad for the economy, period.

At the time of writing this post, many VVIPs have been visiting Bengaluru for the election campaign. You could get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The companies on Outer Ring Road (ORR) had to form an association to get the government’s attention.

Lack Of Co-ordination Between Civic Authorities

Multiple departments are involved in completing most infrastructure projects. We repeatedly see failures during project implementation. Solving this is not rocket science; it requires common sense.

The road is dug up for laying water pipes, but they manage to cut the electricity or phone cables. Sewage pipes are accidentally broken. These are not intentional; they are due to laziness.

Bangalore Metro

We are proud of our Namma Metro. The management and Metro team have done a great job in running it. Let us not forget to thank the commuters who have ensured the station and the bogies have remained clean. We don’t see graffiti anywhere. Hope it stays this way.

Metro construction due to expansion will go on in Bangalore for more than a decade. During construction, which takes 4-5 years, traffic is bad because only one lane is open to vehicles. Heavy vehicles ply on these roads to deliver material to metro construction workers. Roads get damaged very quickly. We cannot avoid this, but why can’t we ensure the road is well tarred so that vehicles can move faster?

When you question the contractor about the road condition, they say, “Maintenance of the road is done by BBMP, we are only building the Metro”.

Other things needed are,

• Parking place near Metro stations
• Far better bus connectivity to Metro stations. For this to succeed, commuters need to use these buses much more.
• Need Metro to reach major railway stations in Bengaluru
• Need a metro line to Bengaluru airport (cabs are getting expensive by the day)

Relaying of Water & Sewage Pipes

Authorities tend to give contracts to various contractors for completing the job,

1. To dig the road
2. To clear the soil that was dug out
3. To lay the pipes
4. To clear the old pipes
5. To relay the road (if it all!)

During digging the JCB can ruthlessly cut thru the telephone, power cables. The contractor doesn’t take the responsibility of getting it fixed. Residents have to run around to get them fixed. Shouldn’t the roadworks contractor be responsible for the end-to-end implementation?

I would like to believe the government wants to get the job done without troubling the residents. The government needs to inform the residents on who we need to contact in case we need help. It needs to be communicated in a professional way.

Are Major Tech Companies Coming to Karnataka?

A few important statistics of IT/BT in Karnataka (numbers could be a bit old),

• Bangalore contributed $45 billion, or 38% of India’s total IT exports.
• By 2020, Bengaluru will be employing the highest number of IT professionals.
• By 2020, Bengaluru will employ 8 million (direct and indirect).

We have a sufficient number of tech companies in Bengaluru.  Let the new ones go to other parts of the country. Bengaluru cannot handle additional traffic and people. However, for now, we should have attracted corporates to Mysuru. We have failed miserably in our Mission Mysuru.

Andhra Pradesh & Telangana states have been proactive in attracting new corporates, which could translate to a loss of thousands of jobs in Karnataka. A premier mobile company decided to start its factory in a neighbouring state because of the red tape in Karnataka. Sad. This is the case irrespective of which party is in power.

Bangalore ranks 13th in terms of doing business, whereas Andhra Pradesh and Telangana rank first. Clearly, Karnataka is unlucky.

The present government has launched a few good schemes for startups. It would be a lot more useful if the products being developed in govt sponsored incubators can be put to use in the real world. They should discourage startups which are full of buzzwords (AI, ML, Blockchain) and have nothing to show. Reason: Not all startups can expect to be a Unicorn, very few get funded.

Conclusion

It is not just about ease of doing business, but also about handling fundamental infrastructure issues like waste management and lakes catching fire, which have significantly impacted Brand Bengaluru. Having a logo for Bengaluru is nice, but we need to move beyond that.

Bangalore has several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs). Corporators and MLAs need to work closely with RWAs for building a better environment. I always say we cannot shift the onus entirely on the government to keep our locality clean. We residents, too, should not throw things around.

Brand Bangalore is living on past laurels and confidence is eroding rapidly. We cannot live in the past glory; we have to make Bengaluru a better place to live in. And we should apply the learnings in other cities of Karnataka, too.

A humble reminder to the party (or parties) forming the government in Karnataka in 2018, the general elections are in 2019. If you don’t show the intention to deliver in the next 8-10 months, your party will not win sufficient Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka.

Also see,

• Why Karnataka’s New Government Has A Job On Its Hands Despite 8.5% Growth
• In 2009, the US lost $115 billion due to bad traffic