Town planning is an important function for the development of any city. Till 1984, the city had just an outline document to take care of its growth, resulting in indiscriminate constructions, which continue, particularly in the peripheral Bangalore— coming under City Municipal Councils’ jurisdiction.

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The draft Comprehensive Development Plan, 2015, has certain welcome features—one of them being its attempts to ensure that buildings and other types of construction are not allowed in ‘Valley’ zone, which serves to help discharge excess rainwater and avoid flooding of low lying areas. But the document is very complicated and difficult to enforce as it could be interpreted differently. I am sure there are ways to simplify the draft CDP.

In my opinion, any amount of statements by authorities / politicians to improve Bangalore’s infrastructure will not give results until and unless the government decides to have one mega body or an umbrella organisation with sufficient teeth and funds to implement plans to improve the infrastructure.

The bulk of developmental activity in Bangalore is not happening in Bangalore City Corporation and Bangalore Development Authority limits—but under the limits of the 6 City Municipal Councils and 2 Town Municipal Councils. The CMCs and TMCs are not adequately staffed in quality and quantity to handle the tasks before them, resulting in the pathetic conditions of roads and basic facilities.

It requires great willpower and courage by the political leaders to take the step of forming a single organisation to answer the city’s infrastructural issues. For the sake of Bangalore, it has to be done.

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It is heartening to note the country’s GDP growth has touched the 8% mark and is racing towards a double-digit figure, reached only by our neighbour China. Given the right policy initiatives, there is no reason why India cannot emulate China’s success story, which has maintained an uninterrupted high growth of 10%+ in the past 25 years! India has the potential and the opportunity.

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A fter months of effort, our two new large mixed-use projects—Brigade Gateway in Malleswaram-Rajajinagar and Brigade Metropolis, Mahade-vapura, Whitefield Road—are ready to take off. This issue of Brigade Insight talks more about the concept of lifestyle enclaves. Projects like them are certainly the answer to some of the infrastructure issues facing Bangaloreans.

Happy festival season!

Sd/-
—M.R. Jaishankar
Managing Director, Brigade Group

24th Main extension: work commenced

Brigade Group commenced work on the extension of 24th Main, J.P. Nagar, on 21 September.

R. Ashok, MLA, Uttarahalli Constituency, performed the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the occasion. He announced that the road will be called Brigade Avenue. A decision to this effect had earlier been taken at a meeting in the office of the DC (Urban).

The entire length of the road is 1.5 km. Of this, Brigade Group had already developed 600 metres. The remaining 900 metres, which is being developed now, is expected to be completed in the next six months.

Brigade Group has taken complete responsibility to develop the road, towards providing better living conditions to the residents of the locality. This is another initiative in our continuing efforts to contribute to society as responsible corporate citizens.

Yeshwantapura Police Station re-developed
by Brigade Group

In an earlier issue of Brigade Insight, we wrote about re-developing the Yeswantapura Police Station.

The re-developed police station was inaugurated by Mr Mariswamy, IPS, then Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City, on 17 May. The re-development included strengthening of the existing building, which has a heritage look. A new building was constructed behind the existing building to cater to the needs of both the traffic and crime police.

Speaking at the inauguration function, Mr Mariswamy thanked Brigade Group and expressed the need for more corporates to take the initiative to provide better facilities and infrastructure to the city’s growing police force.

In the Picture: (L to R) M.R. Jaishankar and Mr Mariswamy, IPS, then Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City, at the inauguration ceremony of the re-developed Yeshwantapura Police Station

Design submitted for club at Brigade
Millennium wins Architectural Award

Brigade Group had organised a competition, open to young architectural firms in Bangalore, in order to select a design for the club—later named The Woodrose—at Brigade Millennium. A jury, which included leading architects, evaluated the 28 submissions and selected Ochre Architects as the winner. Architecture Paradigm was another firm who had submitted an excellent design for the club.

We are very happy to know that Architecture Paradigm has received a Special Commendation for this design from Cityscape Architectural Review Awards. We extend our hearty congratulations to the team at Architecture Paradigm.

Landscaping award for Brigade Metropolis

We would like to congratulate Future Landscapes, who won the first prize for landscaping at Brigade Metropolis. The Gardens Competition was organised by the Department of Horticulture and the Mysore Horticultural Society, on the occasion of the Independence Day Horticultural Shows at Lalbagh.

In the picture: Sri Vasant Kumar, Director, Mysore Horticulture Society (extreme left) and R. Srinivas, Horticulture Minister, handing over the award for the First Prize in the Gardens Competition to Horace Machado, Antony Lawrence and Sanjay Kumar Sinha of Brigade Group.

Realty 2005: Brigade stall has a new look

Realty 2005, a real estate exhibition orga-nised by KOAPA, the Karnataka Ownership Apart-ments Promoters' Association, was held at Hotel Grand Ashok, on April 31 and May 1. Visitors to the exhibition could meet all the leading property developers and Housing Finance Institutions in the city under one roof.

Brigade Group's stall, sporting a new look, was well received and much appreciated.