Articles by Ashwin Mahesh

See potholes everywhere after the rains for a week or two? Let's remember that we spent Rs.300 crores tarring the roads just before the elections. That's literally being washed away. There is a way to deal with potholes, but BBMP doesn't want to do that. As long as that doesn't change, we can't expect better roads. In most cities around the world, the local government has a small amount of internal capacity too. I.e. they don't outsource the 100% of their engineering work. About 10% is kept in-house. This means that they have a budget for some materials, a few…

Our urban planning framework has totally misunderstood the management of parking. Starting with building bye laws to on-street parking to off-street, pretty much EVERYTHING we do around parking is wrong. And the examples that people point to as 'successful' are often very good examples of failures. The goal of the municipality should be to manage mobility, not parking. And this focus should prioritise mobility of public transport vehicles, and also facilitate good quality infrastructure for pedestrian movement. Look at the example of every major city in the world. They don't go around telling builders that for every square foot of…

A lot of infrastructure that we have in the city is deliberately bad. Take the example of shoulder drains on roads. More than 200 years have passed since it was scientifically proven that water flows better in a cylindrical container than in a rectangular container (and it was known, empirically, even before the proof). So why do our 'engineers' in the city - with various titles - keep building rectangular shoulder drains?Simple - because the cronies of the corporators who hijack these contracts are not competent enough to build anything else. All they know is to pour cement (and by…

BWSSB's decision to charge higher water charges only from those who live in apartment communities but not from those who live in single family homes makes no sense, nor is it actually executable. There is a tendency in the agencies to impose higher expectations on those in apartment communities, and even this is done selectively (we are seeing this in SWM also, having to fight against such discrimination). Moreover, those who think up such things are always careful to exempt communities like LIC quarters and BSNL quarters and KEB quarters, because these are not 'private' apartment communities.I agree that BWSSB…

One of the best things that has happened in recent years in the city is growing community participation in the management of lakes. Starting from small attempts some years ago in one or two lakes, we have now reached a stage where at least two dozen communities are working steadily to revive and spruce up the lake environment around them. Today alone, I received invitations on email threads for people to be part of three initiatives - in Yelechenahalli, Agara and Avalahalli lakes. As I drove home past Sarakki lake, I noticed the fencing work has been substantially completed on…

The proposal to widen six roads - actually, just small segments of these roads - lacks everything we would wish for in urban design. It's not part of an overall strategy of mobility in the city; it's not clear what goals are expected to be achieved; it's not being done as per the KTCP Act which requires these projects to be carried out through town planning schemes, and it doesn't even copy the best of such efforts from other parts of India. First, they are not proposing to actually widen roads, but only some stretches of the roads. Widening Bannerghatta…

The Governor has once again returned the Sakrama Bill. In any event, given the court case that is going on, any attempt by the government to circumvent the court was bound to land in trouble, so there's not much point in the Governor also getting embroiled in it. Let's face it - this Bill should be killed. It's a bad idea, always has been. But more than that, we should now be thinking about a scarier proposition - we have reached the stage in our politics where it is difficult to do good things because our representatives are being elected…

The bus fare increases are irrational, and unnecessary. There are at least three things which are wrong, and if these are fixed the bus service could be a lot better without needing to over-charge the poor. a) The government needs to recognise, in its budget, that bus service is a public service that needs subsidy. All over the world public transport is subsidised, because it is well-known that the positive values that result - lower congestion, for example - are far in excess of the subsidy itself. For some reason, the Karnataka government has steadfastly refused to subsidise the BMTC.…

When it suits their dodgy interests, the political parties actually cooperate with each other, even though they are theoretically opponents in the electoral and other arenas. Yesterday (June 11, 2013) we saw a very good example of this in the Karnataka Legislative Council. Some years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment that was intended to free the police forces from direct political interference. The court ordered the establishment of an appointments Board in each state that would manage the postings of lower level police staff (below the rank of DySP). This Board is filled with members of senior…

There are a number of things that the CM can do, to clearly signal a break with the failures of the past. As the new Chief Minister takes office, many Bangaloreans must be wondering what lies in store for our city. We are all hopeful that along with a new government, we will get a new direction too. We've had enough of irresponsible apathy and outright criminality of the political leadership over the last decade. The city is virtually gasping for a new politics, focused on solving problems and being accountable to the public. There are a number of things…