150 layers of info: GIS to help map Bengaluru's wards

BENGALURU: There is hope for planned development of Bengaluru yet. Taking forward a development model being set up in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat and in Arvind Kejriwal's Delhi, India's IT city will have a centralised databank comprising all details including population density, infrastructure and existing facilities.This will enable proper allocation and prioritisation of funds and projects, as per need.

It is not the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) or the e-governance department that is doing this job.

The BS Patil committee on Bengaluru restructuring has initiated the setting up of this Geographic Information System dubbed BASIC ( Bangalore Spatial Info Centre) at a cost of Rs 43 lakh for the Bengaluru region, including the areas covered by the Bengaluru Development Authority .

“Recommendations for systemic changes in Bengaluru's administration has to be data-driven. That is the missing dimension in our governance,“ committee member V Ravichandar told ET.

The committee, in partnership with Infrastructure Development Corporation of Karnataka (I-DecK), tendered out the GIS project last month and work on it began last week. The GIS will map about 150 layers of information for each ward. These include both major and minor details like major roads, green cover, drains, hospitals, blood banks, lakes, bus-shelters, manholes, clubs, fire and police stations.

“GIS is a very important component to monitor ward work,“ Srikanth Nadhamuni, board member of NGO e Governments Foundation, said.

“For example, we can see how many road works have been taken up on a single road. We can colour grade water-logging, property tax collection, land use. It makes the administration see the problems and helps them in decision-making. Just a chart would never enable this,“ he said.
Information is being put together from all government departments for the GIS and is being spatially mapped.

The density of population in the suburban areas, for example, reflects the number of high rises in the area and also points to the problems of water-paucity, all evident by the grade of the colour on the map.

The BWSSB, which is known to not have proper map of the drain age in the old city area, has given details like valve points, manholes, borewells and a basic drawing of the main sewage lines for the GIS.

The GIS will also identify civic amenities sites, lakes and their buffer zones, which could be useful to activist citizen groups.

“The intent is to put it all up on the web, like what has been done for London. It will be accessible not only to those who govern, but to anyone who needs that information,“ Ravichandar said.

Nadhamuni said a similar exercise was done by the Karnataka government for 57 cities in the state in 2003-04 excluding Bengaluru.