Bengaluru Pete - Present Urban Status of Pete

Present Urban Status of Pete

The Pete as it exists today in the heart of Bangalore Metropolis reported a population of 1,12,076 persons in a diverse use area (Residential: 37.5%; Commercial: 34.6%; Industrial: 6.1%). The trades which defined the Pete in the past have remained but have enormously prospered with modern trades, as distinct entities with a built-in relationship between occupation and community with deep-rooted traditional patterns of living. An urban infrastructure study reported in a scholarly article by Champaka Rajagopal in the Journal of the Development and Research Organization for Nature Arts has the following remarkable observations.

• The Pete is presently, inhabited mainly by people from the Devanga, Tigala, Javheri Rajput, Marwari, Gujarati, Jain and Muslim communities.
• In the Pete, industrial and trade activities overflow into the streets, and incredibly encroach public space.
• Within the Pete precincts, the Gujarati, Marwari and Jain communities from north western parts of the country, generally bankers, have gradually diversified their trade from pearl market to textile, garments, jewellery, paper, chemists, druggists, cutlery, metal, hardware and electrical goods.
• Medarpete is house to the more than 500 families of rajput community having their gurudwara durbar saheb sangh they are into household plastic goods, medarpete is the wholesale market for plastic goods.
• Marwaris of the Pete, for whom family still controls inheritance and management of their own business, have diversified into several trades - including assembly of computers - that new economies offer
• Muslim communities of Kumbarpete, like the takaras (traders in household stone equipment), chapparband (menders of roof tiles), sikkalgar (dealers in copper/ brass vessels) and phuleras (traders of flowers) have, over time, diversified into the construction industry
• In the Tharagupete area hardware dealers (mostly dominated by Muslims) say that they have benefited greatly by the rise in global markets, particularly in the construction industry.
• In spite of diversification of trade and industry most of the areas within the Pete have retained their strong presence of community based occupation such as:
  • Avenue Road (old Doddapete road) retains its traditional trade in garments and textiles, jewellery and pawn brokering
  • Krishna Rajendra (KR) Market is known for trade in vegetables, fruits, flowers, iron and steel utensils
  • Sultanpete trades in paper and in Cubbonpete trade is in textile industry
• All the above informal industries of the Pete are reported to have generated more jobs for people. The garment industry, in particular, registered volume of exports more than the Information Technology.
• According to the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) of Bangalore, 1995 that determines zoning, land use and transport within Bangalore Metropolitan Area (which has zoned 1,306 square kilometres (504 sq mi) area of the Bangalore Development Authority), has zoned the city into intensely developed (Zone A), moderately developed (Zone B) and sparsely developed (Zone C) areas. The Pete falls within the intensely developed zone.
• The existing trends of development in the Pete is of high built up area and people density that has resulted in less livable conditions
• A detail study of the changing socio–economic patterns that could bring about in reality different development patterns, is essential by introducing new building byelaws by the municipal corporation
• . Therefore, the Pete skirts through formal enforceable legal systems but continue to develop in an alternative, less livable way due to strong local politics.

The paper has chronicled the urban planning involving highly intertwined issues of the "pete" succinctly and the conclusion drawn from this study of the Pete is better reflected, as quoted:

For a place as intricate and complex as the Pete, formulation of regulations through public participation would be sensitive and challenging. Communities, religions and economies have coexisted here but not without tensions… an inclusive methodology would help direct the role of the urban designer as a 'less cavalier' coordinator, addressing diverse disciplines and negotiating the efforts of various groups that shape urban places, especially for informal urban settings such as the Pete.