Bangalore, once upon a time was a city famed for its gardens, greenery, lakes, quaint road names, wonderful salubrious climate and more laid back pace. It had everything going for it to be a truly world class “ SMART “ city given the high level of intellect, technology prowess, the diversity and energy of youth and the desire of all Indians for a better standard of living and quality of life.

Somewhere along the way in the last 15 years, with the IT boom , it metamorphosed into something that bears little resemblance to its earlier avatar, barring the one saving grace – the weather ( thankfully that is one thing the planners cannot control much). But even that has got hit in more ways than one thanks to the unplanned and rapid expansion of the concrete jungle and planned contraction of green cover it has become, driven by human greed and compromises.

Today the city is creaking under its own weight – did the leadership see it coming or used the more typical approach – let’s take it as it comes and figure out a way along the way ? When things go wrong, pass the buck to the previous government.

There are alarming signs of decay and some signs of progress but a balanced scorecard is sadly too heavily skewed towards the former. Time for the leadership to script a turnaround ? Yes Minister ?

Signs of decay

• Traffic is chaotic, frustrating, wasted productivity
• Killer Roads with craters
• Air and Noise pollution at its peak
• Lakes on their deathbed
• Garbage mismanagement and health related issues
• Huge public money being wasted on patchy work
• No adherence to timelines for project completion
• Not enough Govt - citizen groups interface

CALL FOR ACTION FROM THESE LEADERSHIP LESSONS

We need the city leaders, planners, movers and influencers learn from these mishaps and Leadership Lessons and stand up for the common man and take corrective  measures  that can be measured, analysed and improved?  Some thoughts

1. Move from knee jerk quick fixes to a more proactive and longer term planning be it on road quality, road widening, flyovers, garbage management or mass transport  solutions.

2. Have  clear execution, project and cost deadlines that have the same seriousness that an organization and leaders within that would give or adhere to and which penalise or blacklist non perfomers and defaulters who mess around .

3. Ensure cross department and agency  coordination, better project management and more accountability and motivating the foot soldiers to rise and make things happen as committed . We saw that with the Delhi metro project driven by a no nonsense  leader. We need more Shreedharan's here !  Or a Minister for Bangalore who is also no nonsense and determined to make a difference. This can be a classic turn around story Mr Minister .

4. Get  some of the IT biggies and mid sized firms  to stand up and adopt large earmarked 3- 5 km areas outside their campuses and give back by working with authorities to solve some of the infrastructure problems they created ?

5. Partner with entrepreneurs for  the creative energy and technology prowess and Apps  that help employees work from home a lot more , work in virtual teams, car pool, depend more on ecommerce for shopping of more items , improve traffic management, save power and a host of other citizen friendly initiatives that improve quality of life and productivity. Who wants to waste 3 hours of life daily on the useless roads and add to their stress levels?

6. Enforce tougher laws on polluting vehicles, industries, establishments, better lake protection, power wastages, and encourage more use of  public transport, more car free days over weekends and other citizen friendly initiatives.

7. Increased involvement of IT companies, citizens , resident welfare associations ,work groups, think tanks and activists to partner with the government more readily to help better manage garbage, water and air/ noise pollution in a more environment friendly way  and finally

8. See more visible and genuine openness from the authorities to take citizens silent sufferings more seriously, engage more and make this a commitment to a better quality of life .

SMART city is a nice slogan and something to aspire for as a Vision , but right now what  we need urgently is a NICE city to live in where everyday is not a struggle, but a joy for all stakeholders.

And  where the  weather becomes the icing on the cake  - and not the cake itself  !

For full article read the link

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bangalore-crumbling-environmental-logistic-nightmare-lessons-cherian