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Bengaluru looks forward to better infrastructure and policing
Another year, marred by the pandemic, is coming to an end
Another year, marred by the pandemic, is coming to an end. For India’s IT capital and its citizen, the year 2022 was to be a sign of a positive change, but with Omicron Covid variant is causing yet another spike in the city. Concerns are mounting as whether the city will see another lockdown and if businesses will get time to recover the losses.
The hopes for the next year are, however, not limited to recovering from the pandemic. The city’s infrastructure, better policing and a new way of living are among the thoughts on top of people’s minds. So, here is what Bengaluru looks forward to in 2022.
Recovery from pandemic
As Bengaluru steps into 2022, the biggest hope remains for a recovery from the pandemic. Due to Omicron, Bengaluru has already witnessed two major spikes in number of Covid-19 cases in December. In the second wave, close to 1 out of 10 patients have died out of the hospital. In comparison, during the first wave of the coronavirus, only 3 per died outside of a hospital. In the first wave of the virus, 6,551 people lost their lives to Covid-19 in the two months, while in the second wave 14,167 deaths were reported, which made 2021 one of the deadliest. As Bengaluru enters 2022 with a fear of another wave of Covid-19, the biggest hope for the year is to not repeat the tragedy of the second wave.
Better infrastructure
A crackdown by the Karnataka High Court following the death of a 19-year-old medical student in May and hearings of Public Interest Litigations have revealed that there are at least 5,435 potholes, bad roads or bad footpaths in Bengaluru. Another study showed that at least 2,000 km of roads in the city are damaged or have potholes that have cost many lives over the years.
The year 2021 was also the year, where after getting pulled up by the high court, the state government began fixing Bengaluru’s bad roads on a war-footing. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai also claimed that in 2022, most of the potholes in Bengaluru will be taken care of. How realistic is the promising still remains a difficult question, but Bengalureans will be entering 2022, with the hopes of seeing better infrastructure in the city.
Humane policing
In 2021, Karnataka witnessed several instances of human rights violations at the hands of police. On the last of December, a policeman was suspended for attacking a tribal man on his wedding day. In September, the criminal investigation department (CID) arrested a police sub-inspector for allegedly forcing a Dalit man to drink urine, while the latter was in custody in May. On December 8, a police sub-inspector was suspended after he had allegedly manhandled a young man and forced him to drink urine in Bengaluru. Sub-inspector Harish KN was suspended after a departmental inquiry. Activists in the city have been claiming that these attacks were just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bengaluru’s policing problem. A new year brings the hope that the men in Khaki will change for the better in 2022.
A new lifestyle
The Covid-19 pandemic too is an opportunity for such a change, say experts. Mohandas Pai, former director of Infosys, said one of the first changes the city will see is the way it works and work from home is here to stay, at least in a hybrid model.
The pandemic forced companies to rethink the way they operate. In the future, the idea of having a large office with all employees in one place will be obsolete. From an employee point of view, people are thinking of the quality of life, especially by wasting time travelling large distances within the city. A hybrid model which involves work from home and having small hubs across the city will be the way forward. Many are already doing it,” he said.
V Ravichandar, a civic expert, said the city should and will have a “5 km city” in the coming days. “The work from home culture will enable people to work and live in a 5km radius. Such a system will make Bengaluru a pandemic proof city to some extent. One thing this pandemic has taught us is that cases happen in bubbles and travel results in the spread,” he said.
Even though the pandemic has been one of the difficult phases of last year, at least some are hoping that Bengaluru will learn a good lesson from this bad phase.
