The town has truly transformed into a vibrant bustling city. Bangalore has spread way beyond Kempe Gowda’s original boundary, yet vestiges of Bangalore’s past life as handloom Mecca remains in neighbourhoods like Chikpet and Balepet. It was enough to have road space that allowed a horse-drawn jutka to pass through. City Institutions developed; the City market and Victoria Hospital were established. With the creation of Bangalore Civil and Military Station in 1809 came the ‘Cantonment’ and a whole new era. The Garden City emerged, and alongside the tanks, now called lakes, were given their due space in the city’s urban geography. The towns equipped with schools, hospitals, clubs and parade ground that were part of civilian life at the time, along with the Bungalows brought a distinctive character to the city. If the city had Lalbagh, the cantonment had Cubbon Park. In the new extensions of Malleswaram and Basavangudi urban planning was applied for the first time. The Cantonment co-existed with the City right up to 1949, when the two municipalities unified under the Bangalore City Corporation.

Layout

The development of new Layouts started with JAYANAGAR in 1974. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) established in 1976, provided the impetus and a whole new phase of “PLOTTED” residential development took place, with the BDA Layout becoming part of city parlance along with the ubiquitous “Cross” and “Main” like in no other city in India. Through the 1980s, as Indiranagar, then Koramangala drew in more residents, “BDA Layout” became shorthand for desirable residential area. Designated areas for civic amenities, especially the parks and the BDA complexes, enhanced the levels of convenience.

The Outer Ring Road was initially conceived as part of an Outline Development Plan some 30 years ago. The BDA took up the execution, but the road finally was completed only in 2002, after several litigations had stymied the progress. In fact, the layouts adjacent to the Road, Banashankari, J P Nagar, BTM and HSR in the Southern belt, and HRBR, OMBR and East of NGEF on the North-East curve, took shape well before the road was completed. These became the domain of the middle-class, where the ‘stakeholder’ through the local resident’s Association got a role in the management of the locality. In 1998, the BDA in association with city-based NGOs implemented the integrated Urban Environment Improvement Project (IUEIP) in the HRBR-East of NGEF stretch that focuses on solid waste management and Management of Open Spaces, development of a detailed Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and framework for community management of civic services

The south and east arc of the Outer Ring Road also links up with the IT Corridor with easy access to Electronics City and Whitefield. Another offshoot is Sarjapur Road, a sector where international schools have put down roots alongside IT Companies, exhibiting the most recent and alongside IT companies, exhibiting the most recent and dynamic avatar of Bangalore – the globalised information age city. Private developers were quick to spot the potential in this area and have created some architectural landmarks that take residential buildings to new heights.