Bengaluru: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) will introduce a digital platform for citizens to book appointments with relevant officers and submit their grievances along with relevant documents.
This initiative aims to streamline the process of meeting officers, eliminating the need for brokers, and reducing the current inefficiencies.
Talking to reporters, BDA Chairman NA Harris said the agency has already soft-launched a platform to schedule appointments.
"The idea is to ensure public grievances are heard without making them wait,” he said. “We will continue to allow walk-in visitors to the BDA head office after 3 pm.”
The digital platform is likely to be fully ready in 15 days.
The BDA is developing an online dashboard where complainants can request appointments by providing details of their grievances. In addition to scheduling meeting times, the dashboard will track complaints.
"If a complaint is not addressed within a certain period, it will automatically be referred to higher authorities. This initiative aims to provide direct access to the public without requiring any intermediary support," said the Shantinagar MLA.
The BDA chairman also vowed to regularly hold public meetings to clear the complaints.
"I have come across cases where some people come to the BDA frequently despite telling them that their request cannot be processed. There are also cases where the complaint can be disposed of quickly, but they are unable to meet the right officers. The new system will take care of both," he said.
BDA Commissioner N Jayaram said a majority of services of the BDA come under the Sakala Act. "Other than online applications, the officers concerned will also feed the complaints of visitors on the dashboard for the purpose of tracking,” he said.
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The BDA has cancelled the third tender for the 74-km Peripheral Ring Road project after the lone bidder — Astrum International Ltd — did not submit the bank guarantee on time.
The poor response has forced the authorities to waste four months. Now, they must start the process of finding a new bidder from scratch.
BDA Commissioner N Jayaram told DH that there is a plan to tweak the design to ensure more bidders come forward. One of them includes reducing the land acquisition as it runs close to Rs 21,000 crore, which is way too high as compared to the construction cost of Rs 5,000 crore.