Bengaluru has now turned dirty and dense with ever increasing constructions, pitiable roads and horrible civic management.
Uncontrolled is the term one can use for the sudden sprout of constructions (which includes homes, government establishments, commercial establishments and apartments) that have come up in several key areas in the city.
According to data obtained from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, 2,59,675 new constructions have come up in a span of just one year.
The data reveals that Bommanahalli, Yelahanka and Mahadevapura zones have witnessed the highest number of new constructions.
BBMP officials say that the numbers could have increased as the data was last updated in April this year.
Long-time residents of Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli zone, however, claim that the sudden increase in the number of homes and apartments is due to the increase in the number of tech and business parks in these areas.
Residents in Yelahanka say that the proximity to the International Airport’s has increased property value in the area.
Increase in the number of properties is witnessed in the peripheral areas of Bengaluru. The areas with the lowest number of new constructions are the Southern and Western Zones. There has been a 5% increase (16,069 properties) in new constructions in the South Zone and a 3.7% increase (8,553 properties) in new constructions in the entire West Zone.
BBMP figures show that Bellandur has 35,384 properties including residential and commercial establishments in 2017. Residents allege that the figures are much higher than those made available by BBMP.
“In Bellandur, citizens’ groups had conducted a survey on the number of individual homes and apartments as we wanted a better solution for garbage management. Citizen volunteers and students from colleges were roped in to do the counting and we found that there are more than 50,000 homes in Bellandur alone,” said Seema, a member of one of the citizens’ groups in Bellandur.
According to architect Naresh V Narasimhan, unplanned constructions have increased in the city, which has led to pockets of highly dense residential layouts.
“It is not surprising that there has been an increase in so many constructions. There are new tech parks and business parks coming in and most of the residents in these areas have migrated from other parts of the country due to the new jobs these tech parks offer. People will naturally want to stay closer to their work place. This has obviously led to the horrible state of affairs where civic management has become extremely difficult in these areas,” he added.