Bengaluru: Chief minister DK Shivakumar has adopted a template that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been promoting for years – a long-term plan with 2047 as the deadline. The Karnataka State Regional Urbanisation Plan 2047, a Rs 5 lakh crore blueprint launched at Vidhana Soudha Friday, follows the Centre’s Viksit Bharat model in its timeline, its focus on cities and its reliance on regions as building blocks, with Bengaluru at its core.Modi has pitched Viksit Bharat as a vision for a developed India by 2047, the centenary of Independence. He has said that when every state is developed, India will be developed. The Karnataka plan, branded Navodaya Karnataka 2047, applies the same logic within the state.Modi has also asked states to make every city and every municipality part of the goal. Karnataka’s plan divides the state into seven regions anchored by eight growth centres. The extended Bengaluru region, covering six districts and over 2.1 crore people, continues to anchor the technology economy. Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Ballari and Shivamogga get flagship projects, so that growth is not confined to the capital.The strategy rests on seven pillars covering industry and agriculture, services, connectivity, sustainability, skill development, digital governance and innovative financing.The monitoring approach is similar too. At the NITI Aayog governing council in June, Modi called for a monitoring framework with 100-day targets and five-year goals. Karnataka’s plan will be reviewed every 4-5 years, an apex committee will track delivery against department-wise charters, and 80% of the investment is front-loaded by 2032.For Bengaluru, the plan proposes high-speed rail links to Chennai, Mysuru and Hyderabad, with stations developed as business and housing hubs. It reflects the city’s move to five municipal corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority. AI-powered command centres will work to manage traffic and services in real time.Like the national vision, the state plan leans on partners. Of the Rs 5 lakh crore, the state will put in about Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The rest is to come from private investment, public-private partnerships and central co-funding. Value capture finance, municipal bonds and InvITs are proposed to supplement budgets.The urgency comes from numbers. Karnataka’s urban share is set to rise from 46% to 65-70% by 2047, adding over 5 crore city residents. The plan expects Rs 40 lakh crore of industrial investment through 15 clusters and 27 new parks, and says the state will need 50,000-55,000 MVA of extra power capacity.Officials described the plan as the state’s first statewide spatial and economic roadmap, meant to ensure that growth is shared across all regions.
