Infrastructure in Bengaluru
Therefore, Bengaluru essentially became a twin city, with civic and infrastructural developments of the cantonment conforming to European styles of planning.
The city's roads, however, were not designed to accommodate the vehicular traffic, growing at an average of 8% annually, that prevails in Bengaluru.
The crippling infrastructure and lack of a robust mass transit network have led to the city having one of the worst average commute times in the world.
[2] Within the fort built by Kempe Gowda I, the town was divided into petes or localities such as Chikpete, Dodpete and Balepete, with each area intended for different artisans and tradesman.
The four main gates of the fort were Halasuru (east), Sondekoppa (west), Yelahanka (north) and Anekal (south).
Kempe Gowda I sanctioned the construction of lakes within the landlocked city, to provide for a source of water supply.
The city's residential areas further developed under Kempe Gowda II, who built four towers to demarcate Bangalore's boundaries.
These towers in the modern localities of Lal Bagh, Kempambudhi Tank, Ulsoor lake, and the vicinity of Ramana Maharshi Ashram.
The Lal Bagh botanical garden was established in the city during the reigns of Haider Ali and his son, Tipu Sultan.
In his book Bangalore: Scenes from an Indian City, M. N. Srinivas opines that the reasons leading to the haphazard development of narrow, winding roads around the civilian areas around the cantonment was because the British chose to ignore the development of these areas, which were normally reserved for non-European labourers.
His successor, Lewin Bentham Bowring (1862–1870) established the first organised law enforcement units in the city as well the sewerage system and the department of Survey and Settlement.
Contractors engaged in building construction employing more than 10 labourers, were required to maintain a latrine for their use and clean it daily.
To prevent the spread of the epidemic, several unsanitary houses were demolished, and with a lack of manpower to accomplish the demolitions, convicts from the Central Jail were requisitioned.
A similar extension was formed in the north of the city, called Sheshadripuram, after Diwam Sheshadri Iyer.
Market was laid to commemorate the silver jubilee of the accession of the king of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV in 1927.
In August 1948, the Governor General of India, C. Rajagopalachari inaugurated the Jayanagar extension, named after the last ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, Jayachamrajendra Wodeyar.
To cater to the electricity needs of a growing population, BESCOM has sought to commission 11 additional 66/11 kV substations.
The Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), a private-public partnership enterprise, was established during the S. M. Krishna administration to coordinate civic improvement and development activities with the BDA and BMP.
Under the leadership of Sir Mirza Ismail, Diwan of Mysore, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a public sector undertaking was established in Bangalore for the purposes of research and development of fighter aircraft in the 1940s.
By 1991, peak-hour traffic to Bangalore had increased to 1,800 passengers, making HAL the fourth busiest airport in the country by 2004.
[13] When a tender was issued in 1991 by the Government of Karnataka for the construction of the Bangalore International Airport, HAL decided to discontinue civil aviation service.
[17] The maintenance and construction of roads to address the growing traffic in the city has been a challenge to the BDA and the BMP.
The Hosur Road, which connects Bangalore to the Electronics City, is heavily congested and is part of the National Highway (NH7), therefore witnesses heavy truck traffic as well.
[26] Ideological clashes between the city's IT moguls, who demand addressing of the infrastructural problems of the city, and the successive state governments, whose electoral base is primarily rural Karnataka's agricultural workers, are common[27] In 2005, however, the Central and state governments allocated sizeable funding from their annual budgets towards the improvement of Bangalore's infrastructure.
