City: Bengaluru

Mobility was arguably Bengaluru’s single largest problem in 2017. Even as people grappled with depleting resources of water and land, it was the nightmare of getting from one place to another that took precedence over all else in our psyche. In a city of about 1.1 crore people, Bengaluru officially has close to 70 lakh registered vehicles. This is the second largest vehicle population in the country, coming behind Delhi which leads the way with a little more than a crore vehicles on its street. Mumbai with a population of 20 million has just over 35 lakh vehicles. In Bengaluru…

The residents of Indiranagar have been dealing with the fall out of rampant and unplanned commercialisation in their area for a few years now. With a number of bars and pubs opening up in arterial roads, the problems have only multiplied. Most of these establishments are concentrated around CMH road, 12th Main Road, 100 Feet Road and 80 Feet Road. Parking woes, overstretched utilities, loud music during nights, drunken misconduct - the list was endless. So while many Bengalureans preferred to head to Indiranagar for a night out, it had become a nightmare for those who lived in the locality.…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed converting street lights to Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights many times in the last 10 years, but none of those plans were executed. Now the BBMP has come up with a new approach to making it happen. BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad recently explained that the government would in a couple of weeks call out tenders for the work of replacing street lights with LED light bulbs. It is expected to take a couple of years for the project to be completed. Why has there been a delay in the  plan for LED…

Metro-Phase II is on target Namma Metro-Phase II is under way. Tracks are being laid on the 72-km line at a cost of Rs 455 crore.  The construction of the elevated line (viaduct) and stations along the line are all right on track. Building up an elevated line from Yelachenahalli to Anjanapur and Nayandahalli to Kengeri and stations on the stretch are all in their final stages. In Peenya, the BMRCL has 21,500 square feet of land that will be provided free to manufacturing contractors.   The decision to go ahead with Phase II was because the third rail system…

Lane-wise composting pilot was flagged off in HSR Layout on December 12th by MLA M Sathish Reddy who donated 12 lane composters to mark his birthday. The elected representative has previously donated puja flower composting rinks to 12 temples and 100 home-composting kits. All wet waste of the houses in one lane will be composted in a composter installed in that lane near the house of the lane-volunteer. The composter will be locked, so that no passerby can drop any litter in it and the BBMP supervisor who holds the key will be held accountable for the quality of segregated…

It’s been a protracted battle that lasted for over 15 months, involving lakhs of apartment residents, thousands of apartment complexes, hundreds of representations to Government and Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), tens of court cases and one protest rally. The Government of Karnataka has finally made BWSSB withdraw the retrospective Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) notification imposed on apartments, based on a presentation done by the Governing Council of Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF). During this period, apartment residents have been unreasonably and unfairly accused of not doing their bit for the city, by “opposing STPs”. To clear up the…

The tenure of the present Karnataka Assembly ends on May 28, 2018. Elections for the 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly are likely to be held in May, 2018. The final dates are yet to be determined. Every day we see examples of poor governance around us – despite paying our bills, taxes and being the fairly conscientious citizens we think we are. Many a time, we hear ‘the government should do this or that’, the traffic is terrible, the pollution is killing us, the garbage situation is untenable and so on and so forth. All of which is true. It’s also true…

Inviting you to  write an article to comment on how the Master Plan-2031 will impact your neighbourhood, in this contest presented by Citizen Matters, Bengaluru , B.PAC and ooru.in  Check out the draft of the Revised Master Plan - 2031 (RMP-2031) released by Bangalore Development Authority, that is set to define our city’s growth for the next 15 years. Understand, analyse and write an article to comment on how it will impact your neighbourhood. What we expect Your write up should be based on an understanding of what the Master Plan 2031 is about and how it can impact your locality and city. Substantiate…

The four-kilometre Bellandur-Marathalli stretch of the Outer Ring Road is home to over 50 large IT companies, and directly employs nearly five lakh people. Consequently, hundreds of homes, small businesses, paying guest accommodations have sprung up in Bellandur to cater to the needs of the surging mass of people who now live and work here, creating a nightmare for residents and travelers alike. While ill-planned flyovers and underpasses have done precious little to improve traffic flow on the ORR, it has successfully divided Bellandur into two halves, and made life hell to people of this community, especially to pedestrians who…

I moved to Bengaluru six months ago to start a fellowship programme. This was my first visit to Asia. I was fortunate my housing was sorted by my host organisation. Most expatriates and students who come to Bengaluru are not as lucky as they have to look for accommodation on their own. For first timers finding reasonable, quality accommodation in a good neighbourhood can be quite a challenge. Ideally, the area should be friendly, the neighbours should be good, it should be free from noise and bare necessities should be accessible. Most expats posted to Bengaluru will have a relocation…