BDA@50: Not the master planner it was meant to be

As the Local Planning Authority (LPA) for Bengaluru, the planning function being the major differentiator to its predecessor City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) – the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has always been found wanting.

No plan for a decade

Bengaluru has gone without an updated master plan for over a decade after the last Revised Master Plan – 2015 expired. The saga of the Draft RMP – 2031 elucidates the problems with planning under the BDA.

The draft was challenged in the High Court of Karnataka on the grounds that, as per the 74th Amendment of the Constitution, it is the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC) that has to plan for the city. Meanwhile, BDA withdrew the draft after BMRCL brought out a comprehensive mobility plan with Transit Oriented Development (TOD), allowing for densification along metro corridors, which was not part of the RMP – 2031.

Now, as the BDA completes half a century, it is no longer the LPA for Bengaluru, divesting it of the core objective of its formation. Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), which for the first time brings all the parastatals in the city on its platform, has replaced BDA as the LPA for the GBA area. This, it is hoped, will allow for a holistic planning of the city, which was not possible under the BDA. Meanwhile, BDA will continue as the LPA for the BDA area beyond GBA. 

Failure to predict growth directions

The master plans done by BDA earlier – 1984, 1995, 2005, 2015 – have not earned great laurels either. Though the first CMP, released in 1984, aimed at decongesting the core city and promoting growth around the city’s periphery, subsequent plans failed to keep pace with the economic geographies of the city.

Even as the city grew the most rapidly since the 1990s to its South East to house the IT corridor and housing for those working there, none of the master plans kept pace, leading to unplanned and unregulated development in these areas characterised by very low road grid, rampant illegal constructions, encroachments of water bodies and storm water drains, leading to heavy traffic congestion, and floods, among others. This is despite Electronics City, which formed a hub around which IT boomed, was established in 1978, just two years after BDA. 

No informed interventions

Most of the recent layouts developed by the BDA are in the northern and western parts of the city – Vishweshwaraiah Layout, Arkavathi Layout, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth Layout. BDA has recently received approval for six new layouts, most of them along Kanakapura Road. The last layout BDA built in South East Bengaluru was HSR Layout in 1985, preceding the IT boom.

While citizens point out that BDA layouts or even apartments in the IT corridor could have improved the housing and road grid issues in the area, BDA sources cited the lack of availability of land at cheaper rates as the reason for this. 

Not just land use plans

Champaka Rajagopal from Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, saidBDA’s Master Plans have so far primarily been spatial in nature and so, incomplete. “Urban planning in Bengaluru needs to be institutionalised. By this, we mean, three things: one, spatial planning needs to be integrated with economic growth agendas of the state and national governments – this implies that planners need to understand business cycles in multiple markets and non-markets, a skill that yet needs to be cultivated; two, infrastructure needs to be central to spatial planning – this implies not just allocation of land for public purpose but holistically addressing quality education, healthcare, housing for migrant workers and informally occupied areas, transport, water and sanitation; and three, urban planning processes must iteratively respond to urban governance and political accountabilities at the city and ward levels. The GBA, although imperfect in its manifestation of the 74th CAA, promises to bridge these gaps”.

Not only are these master plans woefully insufficient, but even these plans are not implemented in full. Roads planned two master plans ago are still not constructed, even as zoning regulations are routinely violated. “Plans need to be led by shared outcomes. To monitor the orientation of plan implementation, a locally led monitoring and evaluation system needs to be put in place,” Ms. Rajagopal said.

In this series, we look at the evolution of the BDA as it turns 50 years old

Published – January 17, 2026 07:08 pm IST