By Bhamy V. Shenoy

District in-Charge Minister of Mysuru, Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa has taken the timely initiative in holding a public meeting to develop a vision document.

Due to the failure of earlier Comprehensive Development Plans (CDPs) and Master Plans and also total failure on the part of the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to implement the rule of law, Mysuru has been going the way of Bengaluru to a failed city.

I suggest two kinds of action — One is to reap low hanging fruits by implementing them as soon as possible. Second one is to decide on the needed reform after  careful planning.

First one is to bring MUDA under MCC as envisaged by the Constitutional Amendment Act 1992 (74th) to decentralise urban government and restructure then completely to ensure misuse of power.

While implementing this reform, all housing developments by micro, small and medium private developers should be stopped. Only those large companies with well-established track records should be given the contract. Even under this new scheme, housing can still be provided to meet the needs of the poor while giving contracts.

Second is to separate Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW) from the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and either form a separate board as in the case of Bengaluru (Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board) or hand it over to Karnataka Water Supply and Sewerage Board at the earliest. MCC has proven itself to be incompetent to manage VVWW.

The third step is to form a separate company to handle and process the city’s increasing amount of garbage. Unlike in the past, garbage handling is an extremely complex task and we need specialised companies to manage this critical activity. This is a practice worth learning from developed countries.

The fourth step is to form Ward Sabhas as required by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) as soon as possible. Already there is a Court-mandated direction to form them. Nothing prevents MCC from forming Ward Sabhas.

Reform

For the second type of reform, the District Minister should consult Bengaluru-based Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) or similar institutions to a appoint consulting company to take an integrated look at Mysuru to develop a 50-year  vision document.

While awarding the contract, we need to ensure that the company will have world-class urban planners/ architects as consultants. Such a document will cover the following aspects of planning and much more.

It should preserve the character of Mysuru — cultural capital, promoting music and arts, knowledge capital with leading Universities, preserving heritage buildings, museums, etc. Earlier CDPs did pay lip service to this basic requirement though it discussed in length Mysuru’s rich heritage.

To streamline traffic movement — railway stations, airport, metro, replacement of internal combustion engines by electric vehicles, use of metro etc. — provide adequate water supply. Providing the needed space for industrial zones.

Connectivity between residential areas and industrial zones should be taken into consideration. Synergy between Greater Mysuru as it expands to take over the adjoining layouts and Nanjangud as discussed in Mysuru Master Plan II 2031.

Since most areas developed by private parties are in pretty bad shape, consultants need to take an in-depth look at how to provide all the needed infrastructure.

As part of this document, it is expected that there will be recommendations to de-congest the Central Business District (CBD). More than likely, it will involve locating Sub-Urban Bus Stand and City Bus Stand outside the CBD.

Key parameters affecting future development of Mysuru

To emphasise the critical need for estimating parameters such as population growth, traffic patterns, water treatment, electricity demand and waste management in preparing a vision document, I have made back-of-the-envelope estimates (informed approximations).

The table below summarises these parameters, which reveal staggering projections for vehicular growth, water consumption and waste disposal. Unsurprisingly, the burden on the Under-Ground Drainage (UGD) system increases in tandem with higher water usage.