Name of the Best Practice: Public-Private Partnerships(PPP) of Bangalore Agenda Task Force(BATF)

Name of the Best Practice: “Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for Transparent & Accountable Urban Governance”.

Address of the Best Practice: People’s Welfare Council (A Consumer NGO), Plot # 17, First-Floor, 13th Cross, Agrahara-Dasarahalli Road, Basaveshwara Nagar, Bangalore-560079. State of Karnataka,India. Tel: (+91)-80-23116218. Fax: (+91)-80-23304010, ATTN: Trasi E.Mail: [email protected] [email protected]

Contact Person: Yeshwant Trasi Founder Member & Chairman: People’s Welfare Council (A Consumer NGO United Nations Accredited Freelance Development Journalist & Human Rights Rapporteur. Honorary Member: Janaagraha. Bangalore,State of Karnataka, India. Type of Organization: Consumer NGO.

BATF Partner: Janaagraha 198, Nandidurg Road, Jayamahal, Bangalore-560046.State of Karnataka, India. Tel: (+91)-80-23542381/82. Fax: (+91)-80-23542977. E.Mail: [email protected] Contact Person: Mr.Ramesh Ramanathan – Coordinator Type of Organization: Community Based Organization Type of Support Rendered: Technical & Financial

Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) Address: 19/1, First-Floor, Alexandria Street ,Richmond Town, Bangalore-560025. State of Karnataka, India. Tel: (+91)-80-22122608/09/10. Fax: (+91)-80-22122611. E.Mail: [email protected] Contact Person: Ms.Kalpana Kar – Member. Type of Organization: Public-Private Partnership Type of Support: Technical & Financial

Category of the Best Practice:

Urban & Regional Planning: Community based Planning & Budgeting. Technology, Tools & Methods: Management tools & Systems, Software & Hardware, Networking, Training & Capacity building.

Urban Governance: Participatory Budgeting & Decision making, Transparency and Accountability, Public- Private Partnerships.

Children & Youth: 10 Years to Adults, Environmental Programmes with a Youth Focus, Community Support Programmes.

Level of Activity: Provincial/State.

Eco-System: Arid/Semi-Arid.

SUMMARY:

The BATF has followed a first of its kind methodology ever put to use under Indian conditions to realize its objectives of upgrading the infrastructure and quality of Civic Services with the Association of stake-holders of the City. The BATF was set-up involving prominent citizens from different fields and representatives of the Government. It involves the Corporate Sector, IT Firms and Specialists for a Public- Private Partnership to offer the Citizens of Bangalore a better quality of life through transparent and accountable Good Governance. The Corporate sponsorship generated through BATF, has already reached Rs.32crore, which will be utilized for the development of the city as there is no funds constraint in driving the Initiative forward. Four years down the line; visible - developments in terms of Infrastructure, internal Reforms in the Civic Administration and customer-friendly initiatives have been carried out by the stake-holders i.e. BCC, BDA, BMTC, BWSSB, BSNL, BESCOM and the Police. The latest independent opinion-poll conducted by the reputed agency TN-Sofres India has shown that over 88 percent of Lower Income Groups have seen and experienced lot of improvement in the last four years.

Key Date; January 31 – BATF Summit Date for Performance Appraisal.

NARRATIVE

Best Practices for Good Governance to raise the quality of Life across Urban Cities in India; clearly, the Bangalore Model for Public-Private participation (PPP) of the BATF is unique and no other city has anything comparable. There has also been a lot of interest in PROOF – the initiative of quarterly reports by the civic Agency Bangalore Mahanagar Pallike to citizens. In the past three years, the task force has been involved in the improvement of the City, the changes, both the tangible and not so tangible ones are being felt all around. In the first two years, the emphasis was on specific Projects and BATF activities were more ‘visible’ to the citizens. Now the emphasis has shifted from Project orientation to partnering in Policy formulation and advocacy for other cities while the former is expected to provide a sustainable basis for the initiatives, the advocacy route would carry the BATF body of knowledge to other urban centers all over India.

The unique platform – the Bangalore Agenda Task Force created to provide direction and to set long-term goals for the stake-holders responsible for the growth of the city through public private partnership has come a long way. This innovative move, which has become a trend-setter for other cities of the nation, has started showing the desired results. The duty of the BATF is to create a catalyzing movement to take Bangalore forward and make it the best city in India by 2004. It has displayed its commitment by involving the stake-holders right from the project implementation stage. To realize its objectives of upgrading the infrastructure and quality of civic services with the association of the stake-holders of the city- Bangalore Mahanagara Pallike(BMP), Bangalore Development Authority(BDA), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bangalore Police, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd(KPTCL), and Bangalore Telecom– the BATF has followed a first of its kind methodology ever put to use under Indian conditions. It involves the Corporate Sector, IT Firms and specialists for a public-private partnership to offer the citizens of Bangalore a better quality of life. The BATF was set up involving prominent citizens from different fields and representatives of the government. They included professionals from management consultancy, architecture, urban planning, financial management, education and civic affairs and marketing and communications. The corporate sponsorship generated through BATF has already reached Rs.32 crore, which will be utilized for the development of the city. So far, six Summits to review the implementation of programmes by the stake-holders have taken place. The focus in the first year (2000-01) has been largely on short-term projects capable of yielding quick visible results besides generating learning for expanding and consolidating long-term infrastructure projects; improving private- public partnership; legal & administrative reforms; projects with specific deliverables and enhancing sustained delivery mechanisms. The long-term ‘impact initiatives’of BATF include: Urban Renewal through rejuvenation of old areas including de- congestion measures, upgrade of infrastructure, roads, parking systems, market development, Solid waste and Liquid waste Management, Storm water drain rehabilitation, best practices for new layouts and improve Slum Environment. The BATF has focused on the following for a sustainable future: IT plan, Human Resource Strategy, privatization of civic services, capacity building, creation of shared pool of intellectual expertise for growth and infrastructure development such as town planners, traffic planners, development of low cost, fast track technology for quick development of basic road infrastructure; enabling provisions through amendments for augmentation of internal resources, to check disorderly growth of the city and for easy enforcement of various bye-laws. All these are part of any BATF Project. GATEWAY TO BANGALORE: BATF has given impetus to one such important- project that of developing the congested Majestic Area in to the gateway of Bangalore with the assistance of the BMP, BMTC & Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The idea is to beef-up the local infrastructure to meet the requirements of the floating population, which constitutes 40 percent of the commuting traffic in the city. The work on the project has already commenced and it took nearly three months for BATF to study the prevailing chaotic conditions. The features of the project are: upgrading of road conditions, footpath, installation of proper sign boards to benefit visitors, separate identity for services offered by the KSRTC, the BMTC and the Indian Railways, removal of bottlenecks in pedestrian traffic flow, improvement of pedestrian sub-way, infrastructure for the Disabled, installation of street furniture, modern bus-shelters, improvement in lighting, upkeep of drainages, promotion of food courts(fast food outlets), improvement in hygiene by integrating ‘Swaccha-Bangalore’ Solid Waste Management Techniques and Nirmala Bangalore programme. This programme is aimed at upgrading public sanitation facilities with the assistance of the BMP and the BWSSB. It includes providing accessibility to hygienic sanitation systems for the Urban poor; creating systems, procedures and financial sustenance; building a strong network for future sanitation programmes by setting a benchmark; delivering a public-private partnership model creating a methodology for Fund- channelisation; comprehensive documentation of programme and systems for easy replication and to create awareness about sanitation among citizens. A sum of Rs.8 crore is being spent on the programme. The designs are site-specific, addressing the local needs. The revenue model is being worked-out for maintenance and there is a separate mechanism for implementation & maintenance of the toilets. The BATF is studying the User-Experience to provide additional facilities at other toilet complexes and to adopt best cleaning procedures.

Take a look at their initiatives that took the city forward, but the SAS (self-assessment scheme) for property tax, one way traffic scheme, public toilets through Nirmala Bangalore, Bus shelters, adopt a park scheme, signage, infrastructure projects for the city or Janaagraha which took root based on supply side reform in the civic Agency BMP to understand better how this private –public partnership is slowly, but surely catalyzing improvements in civic Governance.

Visible infrastructures are the identifiable icons of developments. According to the survey, some of the main reasons for the perception that things have improved are removal of garbage dumps, creation of Bus shelters, park renovations, flyovers, more toilets and clearance of footpath encroachments. The BATF has shown that there is synergy in the Government and empowered private bodies working together for better Bangalore. This coupled with a citizen-driven demand for better transparent services and an increasing sense of responsibility towards their city, is the way forward.

The Fund-based accounting system (FBAS) of Janaagraha is another innovative concept akin to a financial module of Enterprise resource planning for Government bodies (Social, Enterprise, Commercial, Fiduciary), and lends itself to record the financial transactions under these categories accurately. With Computerization under the Newsystem, the civic Agency Bangalore Mahanagar Pallike (BMP) can now effectively monitor its item-wise Receipts and payment position as well as implementation of works on a day-to-day basis. The fund based Accounting system has several benefits – like access to accurate, fast and timely information with an ability to administer the development works efficiently. The process of implementation of Fund Based Accounting System in the civic Agency BMP has taken 33 months and over 3,00,000 Man-hours of collective efforts from the BATF that has spent nearly Rs.1.5 crore on the Project. It included Process Mapping, designing of appropriate Accounting Policies and Procedures, streamlining Relationship with Banks through Memoranda of understanding, Software Development & Deployment.

The Karnataka Government’s efforts to synergise its Infotech power through E- Governance for the benefit of common Man has resulted in the Bhoomi Project and Bhoomi means Earth and this is down to earth procedure to secure a Land Record. India’s largest e-governance online delivery of Land Titles under the Bhoomi Programme has received worldwide acclaim and was chosen for a Commonwealth Award in September 2002 in Glasgow, U.K., from among commonwealth’s 54 Member States. Bhoomi Project has also impressed the UNDP, which is keen to replicate it in other Developing Countries.

The Public-Private Partnership is a unique experiment for Urban Governance and is a constant process of learning and upgrading as each city has its own characteristics. The model is working successfully in Bangalore and is in the process of consolidation. Corporate and Citizen involvement is extremely important and a feeling of belonging needs to be cultivated. At the end, every Citizen should become a stake-holder in the city development. The success of BATF in Bangalore has paved the way for creation of similar Task Forces in Mysore, Belgaum and other Cities & Villages of India to provide direction to the stake-holders in the area of Urban & Rural Development.

Yeshwant Trasi Plot #17, First Floor, 13th Cross, Agrahara-Dasarahalli Road, Basaveshwara Nagar, BANGALORE-560079 (STATE OF KARNATAKA), INDIA TELEPHONE:- (+91)-80-23116218, FAX: (+91)-80-23304010 E-MAIL [email protected] [email protected]

References: Articles appeared in the Press focusing on BATF Best -pratices.

1. Newspaper ‘Deccan Herald’, Dec.29, 2001 / Article “BMP seeks Citizens’ cooperation in preparing Budget”. 2. Magazine ‘India Today’, Feb. 2002 / Article “Visionary Zeal”. 3. Newspaper ‘Bangalore Times’, Nov.7 2002 / Article “BATF shows Pune the way”. 4. Newspaper ‘Bangalore Times’Jan3 2003 / Article “BATF-Check out the Road Ahead”. 5. Newspaper ‘Bangalore Times’, May8 2003 /Article “No other city has anything comparable”. 6. Newspaper “Times of India”, Dec.30 2003 /Article “BATF evolving plan for Solid Waste Handling”. 7. Newspaper “Bangalore Times”, Jan.27, 2004 /Article “BATF: How far forward”. 8. Newspaper “Times of India”, Jan28, 2004 /Article “BATF Summit will count steps taken”.