City: Bengaluru

The state government has been on an inauguration spree. The ruling party has been traveling across the state launching everything, from mega infrastructure projects, like the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway, to toy trains. It is no coincidence that this frantic activity comes in the lead up to elections. The ruling party pats itself on the back with full page ads for projects that are almost finished, incomplete, just beginning or still in the conceptual state. But how do these projects fare after the fanfare? Prime Minister inaugurates, rains disintegrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the city at least five times since…

The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has proposed new changes to the tariff and norms with respect to solar rooftop projects for the year 2024, following the expiration of the existing policy on March 31st. The discussion paper outlines several changes, including reducing the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) term to 15 years and introducing grid-interactive support charges. KERC has scheduled a public hearing on April 13th to gather input from all stakeholders before finalising the policy with the proposed changes. This article will explore some of the crucial points outlined in the discussion paper and analyse their potential impact. Reduction…

 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha Member Sanjay Singh released the list of Aam Aadmi Party guarantees for the Karnataka assembly elections in Bengaluru on March 29th. Read more: How we registered our Apartment Owners Association under KAOA, 1972 Addressing a press conference at the party's state office, Sanjay Singh said, “Aam Aadmi Party is not a party that gives false promises. We offer a guarantee card with 100% fulfillment. We have fulfilled all the guarantees in the manifesto in Delhi. One by one is being implemented in Punjab as well." "Major guarantees related to total ten…

After much fanfare Bengaluru's new Whitefield (Kadugodi) and Krishnarajapura (KR Puram) metro line, which finally put Whitefield on the Namma Metro grid, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 25th, and opened to the public on March 26th. Despite being made fun of by netizens for the line missing between Baiyappanahalli and Krishnarajapuram, which is currently bridged by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation's (BMTC) feeder buses, the Whitefield metro line logged a ridership of 16,319 on the first day of operations. The line, which is proposed to connect Baiyappanahalli and Whitefield through Krishnarajapuram (KR Puram), is essentially an…

Citizen Matters, Bengaluru, is gearing up for an exciting conversation with the Environment Support Group (ESG) as they turn 25 this year. Representative image. ESG works to mainstream the rights of local communities and voiceless ecosystems. Pic: Kavitha N Kishore ESG is a pioneering environmental organisation that was pivotal in creating awareness on environmental issues plaguing Bengaluru. Over the years, ESG has fought to stop destructive roads projects and pushed for preservation of lakes and our vanishing greenery. The organisation has been vocal in speaking for public commons and environmental justice and has fought several legal battles to prevent destruction…

Poll plans roll out Many are worried that as civic officials have been posted to election duties for the upcoming Assembly polls on May 10th, the ongoing infrastructure projects will be affected. Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that urban apathy is a concern in elections. Against the 72% polling in the state in the 2018 Assembly elections, the city's constituencies had only around 55% polling. He said that the EC (Election Commission) has reached out to IT firms, colleges and start-ups to increase awareness. To increase voter participation, the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) listed out some initiatives…

For the record, Gubbalala Lake, located in Raghavendra Layout close to Vajarahalli Metro Station, is an eight-acre 10 gunta waterbody. In reality, it occupies just four acres and 20 gunta. It is suspected that about two acres of the lake’s land have been encroached upon. The lake has four inlets and one outlet, with a walkway length of 810 meters and a main bund length of 160 metres. The catchment area is about two square kms. The lake is situated in the 110 villages scheme/areas of BWSSB (BBMP vide a notification in the year 2008 acquired gram panchayats with 110…

The Karnataka and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Budgets, 2023-24, recently announced that 75 junctions of Bengaluru would be improved, at a cost of Rs 150 crore. In keeping with this vision, the BBMP and Bengaluru Traffic Police, in collaboration with World Resources Institute India (WRI India), under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), launched the Suraksha 75 Mission 2023 initiative on March 25th. The Suraksha 75 Mission aims to create people-centric and holistic intersection designs to make them safe, efficient, inclusive, and universally accessible. This initiative aims to make Bengaluru's busy intersections safer for pedestrians, along…

The K-100 stormwater drain cuts across 23 wards in the city as it traverses from its source near Majestic Bus Stand to its destination – Bellandur Lake. The geographies of these drains and its surrounding areas serve as important starting points in understanding city planning and the context of urban floods. The ‘K’ in the K-100 stands for the Koramangala Valley and the ‘100’ denotes that it is the first primary stormwater drain (SWD) of the valley. The K-100 has multiple secondary and tertiary drains, numbered K-101, K-102 etc. intersecting at different points. The drain serves a catchment area of…

In recent years, we have seen a dramatic rise in instances of flooding, along with increasing population density and expanding concrete surfaces. All these add extra pressure to the stormwater drain networks, which also put people living near drains at risk. Therefore, the question that arises is do we need to revisit engineering designs of stormwater drains? Pipes and sewage drains, symbolic of the colonial period, displaced the traditional systems of water from wells and lakes. This is because piped water, which brings water into the city, and drains, carrying sewage out, were viewed as indicators of modernity. The problem…