Dedicated college for urban planning to be set up in Bengaluru

Belagavi

Deputy Chief Minister (Dy.CM) and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday announced that the Karnataka government has decided to establish a seperate college dedicated exclusively to urban planning in Bengaluru, citing an acute shortage of trained town planners in the State.

Speaking in the Legislative Council while explaining the rationale behind amendments to the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority (Second Amendment) Bill, Shivakumar said the government had earmarked ₹100 crore for the proposed institution. The Bill, which had already been approved by the Legislative Assembly, was tabled in the Council by Minister B Boseraju on behalf of Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

Shivakumar said that Karnataka currently faces a deficit of qualified urban planners, forcing departments to rely on engineers from other disciplines instead of trained town planners. To address this gap, the government has decided to set up a dedicated urban planning college after holding discussions with Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).

He said the move would help create a pool of professionally trained urban planners, not only for Bengaluru but also for other parts of the State in the coming years. Dy.CM added that the Kempegowda Planning Authority had already been constituted and five acres of land had been allotted to it near Summanahalli in Bengaluru.

Referring to administrative changes, Shivakumar noted that while the authority was originally chaired by the Chief Minister, it was later placed under the chairmanship of the Revenue Minister during the BJP government’s tenure. The proposed amendment, he said, mandates the inclusion of urban planning officers and directors as members of the authority to strengthen its technical capacity.

The government, Shivakumar said, aims to institutionalise urban planning expertise to better manage rapid urbanisation and long-term city development across Karnataka.