Bengaluru: The Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka is making fresh efforts to bring the Electronics City Industrial Township Authority or ELCITA under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), The Print has learnt. The move would potentially subsume one of the better managed localities in the state’s capital under the expanding city corporation.
According to people aware of the developments, ELCITA has long been a focus for the Bengaluru city corporation as it houses many of India’s bellwether technology companies and multinational corporations, making it a significant source of revenue that the administration is eager to secure.
“The thinking is to bring ELCITA under the Bengaluru city corporation when the expansion (of the city’s boundaries) takes place. There are areas which have grown at a massive scale which deserve to be brought under GBA limits,” said one person directly in the know, requesting anonymity.
The person added that there is “no point” in ELCITA sharing a portion of tax revenue with the local panchayats, as it does now. The authority was set up under the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964, and is largely autonomous.
Earlier this month, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar issued directions seeking details of property tax collection of the localities under ELCITA, which was viewed as an attempt to bring the region under the GBA.
Shivakumar also holds the Bengaluru Development & Town Planning portfolio and the directions are being viewed as efforts to bring ELCITA under the newly carved out ‘Bengaluru South’ district which was earlier known as Ramanagara.
Last week, the Karnataka Information Commission also ruled that ELCITA is a “public authority” after a private person sought details from the latter on works undertaken by it, and information on tenders, accounts, etc. The developments are being viewed as preparation to bring the region under the city corporation, sources said.
Located approximately 25 km from Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, Electronic City, or Electronics City, serves as a prime example of Bengaluru’s “IT capital” identity on the global stage. The locality is distinct from other parts of the city, with pristine roads without potholes, green cover that lines the streets and organised traffic flow.
In 2013, the Karnataka government declared Electronic City as an industrial township area under the Karnataka Municipalities Act, leading to the formation of ELCITA. Prior to that, the Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) managed the industrial area.
ELCITA currently manages the area, looking after road maintenance, water supply, street-lighting, sewage, security and waste disposal, among other functions.
A spokesperson for ELCITA told ThePrint that it had not received any official information so far from the state on any proposal to bring the authority under the GBA.
With city council elections likely later this year, the ELCITA issue is, however, set to gain traction as localities under it can bring in huge revenue to the city corporation’s coffers.
‘May retain administrative structure’
Mohandas Pai, former chief financial officer at Infosys and co-founder of Aarin Capital, told ThePrint that the initial agreement was that companies in Electronic City pay for the upkeep of the area as well as fund other projects.
“The contributions are from the companies there. There is no contribution from anyone other than those in Electronic City. And a part of the revenue goes to the panchayats. They spend the money where all the Electronic City members are,” Pai said.
According to Pai, there have been discussions that there should be more such autonomous industrial townships that can maintain themselves to bring down the load on the administration.
He asserted that the ruling that ELCITA was a “public authority” should also be checked legally since there was no outside contribution to the authority apart from that of its members.
However, the person cited earlier said there is less scrutiny in a panchayat and a place like Electronic City needs to be brought under a more structured governing body.
But therein lies the problem. In recent years, Bengaluru has gained notoriety as one of the world’s most congested cities with crumbling infrastructure and unplanned growth overshadowing its more endearing attributes.
The city has also expanded significantly over the decades, incorporating villages and localities that previously lacked formal infrastructure.
In 2007, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike transformed into Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, expanding its boundaries from around 300 square km to nearly 800 sq km and subsuming large tracts of agricultural and pastoral land that turned into a gold mine for real estate projects.
These localities on the outer periphery are now among the fastest-growing areas in the city, with a surge in IT tech parks and large apartment complexes designed to house the workforce associated with the ecosystem. There are significant public infrastructure and mobility projects designed to cater to the same as well.
The GBA in its subsequent expansion is likely to expand further, people aware of the developments said.
There are ongoing studies to determine what this “enhanced GBA” should look like, the quantum of expansion and other aspects.
“The Brand Bengaluru Committee is looking at an enhanced GBA. Right now, it has just five municipal corporations and covers 721 sq km. There is no corporation under which ELCITA can come because it is not contiguous with any population right now,” V. Ravichandar, a public infrastructure commentator who is on the government-appointed Brand Bengaluru Committee, told ThePrint.
However, he added that if there is a proposal to expand the GBA area and the same is accepted by the government, then ELCITA may come under the corporation limits.
“Even if the area is enhanced, the regions outside the 721 sq km will have a multiple governance structure. So, if some gram, taluk or zilla panchayats, including industrial townships, come under it, they will continue to retain the same administrative structure even though they would be under the greater GBA area,” Ravichandar said.
He added that there could be a situation where ELCITA may remain in its current form but under the greater GBA area.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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