Bangalore Agenda Task Force

The Bangalore Agenda Task Force is meant to be a partnership between the citizens, corporates and the administrative agencies – the BMP, BDA, BMTC, BWSSB, BESCOM, BSNL, and Bangalore Police. BATF has tried to bring together the key players comprising a "Private Public Partnership" (PPP) to enable synergy of effort and visibility of result.

Both BATF and the seven stakeholders believe in the citizen centred approach. However, given that the experience of PPP was new, the BATF commissioned a survey by an independent organisation SOFRES - MODE in December 1999 and identified top citizen concerns. Following this, the first year focus has been largely on short term works capable of yielding quick visible results for greater confidence besides generating experience for expanding and consolidating on long term infrastructure projects from year. The initial task, therefore, for the BATF and the stakeholders was to sit together and agree on an approach and formulate projects and programmes.

BATF team had comprised a team of experts from various fields across all sectors who are appointed by Karnataka Govt. The team was headed by Nandan Nilekani and members included like Naresh Venkataramanan, Kalpana Kar, Ramesh Ramanathan, Ravichander, Suresh Heblikar, Late H.Narasimhaiah, Sunil Shelar and so on. All these members of BATF were contributing to the city's development through by way of sharing broad based knowledge. BATF office was located in Alexandria Street, Bangalore and Infrastructure was created & funded by Chairman of BATF itself. There were appointed technical staff through members of BATF for each of the programmes undertaken by BATF. Each of the staff were selected on the basis of various expertise and skillset. These bunch of team were toiling in the background for all the programmes initiated by BATF. Some of the key technical members were Subramanya M.R handling Road Improvement projects, Deepa Hurali handling Nirmala Bangalore and Bus Shelter projects, Milind Nirmal handling Self-assessment tax with BMP, Gopi prasad, Sushma Nirmal with Street Furniture, Road Signage projects, Sanjeev with One-way traffic and Road Safety. Sheena, Soosai, Manjula were working on Swachha Bangalore project. Some of the project details can be referred in the following web links.

BATF brought much needed visibility to many civic issues and helped creating awareness among the public. The projects were seeds sown which continue to showcase the strength of PPP projects after a decade. Nirmala toilets showcased the quality of facilities, O&M that can be maintained by government organisation in a third world country like India. Beautification of parks, signages brought in the much needed international look to the city. Today this Adopt a Park concept has moved beyond and one can notice there are various programmes that BBMP and other municipal bodies are following like Lake Improvement programmes. It is the concepts that were sowed and which have well been accepted even after BATF ceases to exist. The Nirmala toilet designs and the toilet designs adopted by KSRTC in their various cities changed the design concepts, material and specifications used which has led to good quality facilities that are easy to maintain and hygienic. Bus Shelter programme helped to realise the potential of advertisement revenues to maintain which providing the required facility for commuter in terms of shelter and route maps.

They also provide public toilets and shower stalls for poor people.