City: Bengaluru

Bengaluru may not be the Indian city with the most number of trees, but it certainly has a wide diversity of flowering and avenue trees. Our city also has many species that attain enormous size or height, such as the Akasha Mallige, Silver Oak, Aruacarias, Rain Trees and the African Tulip. Some of these giants simply arrest our senses by their sheer size and majestic bearing as they stand guard over street corners, traffic islands or small lanes. What makes many of them unique is that they are rarely found in cities, and would be more at home in jungles.…

40% progress in road-cum-Metro rail flyover The BMRCL (Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) has made 40% progress in the road-cum-Metro rail flyover on the 3.2 km stretch between Ragigudda, JP Nagar and Central Silk Board on Marenahalli Road. This section is part of the Bommasandra - RV Road line in Phase 2 of Namma Metro. BMRCL says that the most complex activity was the launching and fixing of wings to the spine segment of the road flyover, which is now completed. This is the first road-cum-rail flyover in the city. The Rs 330 crore structure has a four-lane flyover at…

Apprehension loomed large in the mind of homemaker Geetha Dhananjaya, when she first accompanied the Bengaluru City Police (BCP) to their night rounds in Kumaraswamy Layout, in mid-September. Now however, the 45-year old, sporting a salwar kameez, says she has become a regular at the night rounds. Geetha is part of the Neighbourhood Watch Committee (NWC) of the city police. “Being a homemaker, I was not used to being around cops though all of them were women. So initially I had agreed to accompany them with a bit of reluctance,” Geetha says. Geetha is among the 45 NWC members at…

The third edition of Janaagraha’s annual Bengaluru Civic Fest, held in association with Cisco, showcased how Gen Z is taking initiative to bring change in society. The one-day fest was held at the Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. It was a culmination of the IChangeMyCity Challenge, organised from August to December 2019, in which students were tasked with identifying a civic issue that affects their neighbourhood and to come up with an innovative solution to address it. Over 14,000 students from Classes VI to XII across India participated in the challenge through the IChangeMyCity Challenge portal, co-created by Cisco. Twenty-five teams,…

As the rejuvenation of Bellandur and Varthur lakes is underway, the NGO Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) has written an open letter to the state government, requesting course correction. The expert committee on lake rejuvenation had recommended that both the lakes be desilted, but BET's letter points out that it'd take 53 years to remove the toxic silt-cum-slush in Bellandur lakebed, and 20 years for Varthur lakebed! This is because toxic waste has flown into the two lakes, unimpeded, for the last 50 years. BET's calculations are based on a recent study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). More importantly, the…

It seems like Bengaluru is sitting on a powder keg. Recently the state Transport Department revealed that a staggering 50,000 vehicles were registered every month in the city, on average, in 2019. The public transport (PT) system here - Metro and buses - is hampered by the lack of seamless connectivity. This in turn forces commuters to use private cars, two-wheelers and private buses, along with intermediate public transport (IPT) like autos and cabs. The increasing number of private vehicles have led to traffic congestion, increased travel time and air pollution. Despite introducing Metro and procuring more buses, Indian cities…

In the summer of 2019, we thought of renting a house within walking distance of our son's new school. Around our home, Sarjapur road traffic was getting worse and he was getting stuck in traffic a lot. The new school was right next to a large, upscale apartment complex in the IT neighbourhood in Bellandur. Hence we considered moving there; maybe we could walk our son to school. In the first few days of our search, we found a flat we liked there, surprisingly, within our budget. The owner said we could move in within a month, as soon as…

Citizens, industry bodies slam BESCOM’s tariff hike proposal Citizens and industry representatives slammed BESCOM’s (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) proposal to increase electricity tariff by Rs 1.96 a unit in the coming financial year. At a public hearing held at the KERC (Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission) on Friday, the advocacy group B.PAC (Bangalore Political Action Committee) said the Commission should ask BESCOM to "submit realistic projections” and streamline power procurement at low costs, instead of passing on the increase in purchase cost to consumers. As per B.PAC's analysis, BESCOM has not shown any improvement in key metrics such as power purchase…

For someone who lives in Bengaluru, chances are that there is a public library not more than a 20-minute ride away. Out of 80 public libraries in Bengaluru, 79 fall within a 20-km radius from the State Central Library located in Cubbon Park. Interactive map of libraries in the city  The Department of Public Libraries website lists 458 government-run libraries in Bengaluru. These include Gram Panchayat libraries, a Travel library, Traffic and Sewage Libraries. About 200 of these are reported to be public libraries. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), contextualising the role of libraries in the…