City: Bengaluru

In a tragic incident in early January this year, a mother and her two-year-old son passed away when an under-construction metro pillar reinforcement structure in Outer Ring Road (ORR), near HBR Layout, collapsed on them. This led to righteous outrage among citizens. Questions were raised not only about safety at the metro construction site but also about the roads in front of the Metro stations. How safe is it to walk and cross the roads while construction is going on? How challenging is it to commute to metro stations? How much importance is given to fire safety? How are dust…

BBMP's annual budget preponed The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) will present its annual budget day for the next financial year on February 15th, in anticipation of the start of the model code of conduct before the Assembly elections. Last year's budget, presented on March 31st, was delayed as the budget copy was released at midnight. This year, the BBMP is in a hurry to present the budget as it wants to get the state's approval before the code of conduct sets in. Meanwhile, former mayors and corporators have demanded that the allocation made in the name of corporator and…

Final voter lists have been released for Shivajinagar, Mahadevapura and Chickpet, the assembly constituencies at the heart of the illegal voter data collection issue in Bengaluru. With this, electoral rolls have been completed for all 28 assembly constituencies in the city, based on the special summary revision organised by the State Election Commission between November 9th and December 8th in 2022. The lists for Bengaluru were finalised by the BBMP revenue department, the agency in charge of handling election logistics within city limits. With the illegal voter data cloud still looming over election agencies, officials promised to put their best…

Consumers in Bengaluru would have noticed discrepancies in their electricity bills last year, considering the tariffs went through three revisions in 2022 alone. In April 2022, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) revised the tariff for electricity consumers in the state by hiking the price by an additional 35 paisa for the fiscal year 2022-23. The report stated the hike in price was to recover a revenue deficit of Rs 2159.48 crore.  Following this, in June, the Commission accepted electricity supplying companies’ (escoms) proposal to recover the “money spent on increased fuel costs,” resulting in Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited…

Youngsters living in paying guest (PG) accommodations in Bengaluru suffer from a high incidence of mental and substance use disorders, according to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). The study was conducted across 25 PG accommodations in the eight BBMP zones of the city, among 315 individuals between the ages of 18 and 39. Around 90% of the respondents were between 18 and 29 years. The participants included both students and working professionals in an almost equal ratio. Two thirds of the respondents were previously living in urban settings (cities and small towns) in…

Every discussion among residents or at the policy level concerning mobility and commute infrastructure is often about the reduction of private, motorised vehicles on the road and the increase of public transport availability and accessibility. However, the government seems to have missed the point as it is committed to constructing flyovers and underpasses, and widening roads to prioritise cars, much to the chagrin of concerned citizens and mobility experts. In the latest scheme of things, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) decision to fell nearly 54 trees in front of Palace Grounds to widen Bellary road has drawn the ire of…

With some health experts predicting an increase in COVID-19 cases during January, the next 40 days could well be crucial in assessing the spread and effects of the Omicron sub-variant BF.7  in the country. Bengalureans appear to once again be experiencing COVID-19 anxiety as the city is seeing a small uptick in cases. Citizen Matters reported about the immediate COVID-19 protocols taken in December 2022. However, in the past week, cases in the city increased on an average of 32 cases per day, while active cases stood at 266. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya have…

'Rapid road' develops cracks The BBMP’s (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) ‘rapid road’ experiment in Old Madras Road near Indiranagar, inaugurated by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai last month, has already developed cracks in several places. Civic authorities had claimed that the 375-metre stretch of Old Madras Road in Indiranagar, built using new technology, would last for 40 years. The government plans to take up white-topping using the old method. Bommai agreed to the third phase of the project comprising 89 roads, at Rs 1,429 crore, to fit the 2022-23 scheduled rates (SR). The IISc (Indian Institute of Science) has agreed to…

The revamped Church Street, which opened to the public in 2018, was built to be primarily pedestrian-friendly. The project also integrated all the networked services under the road – water, sewage, power, gas, and stormwater drains, ensuring minimum disruptions. (In)famous for being dotted with restaurants, bars, and pubs, Church Street is an attraction for tourists and residents, alike. The videos and reports on social media of how the street, and the adjacent Mahatma Gandhi (MG) road, were crowded on New Year's eve, vouch for its popularity. Five years later, even as Church Street is recognised for its design and aesthetics,…

Bengaluru's infamous traffic jams have been the subject of much discussion for over a decade. With the roads burdened with vehicles beyond its capacity, traffic congestion has increased as the city itself has expanded. Last year, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said his government's priority is to ease traffic. To ensure better traffic management, M A Saleem, IPS, was brought back to head the Bengaluru Traffic Police as Special Commissioner of Police, Traffic, in November 2022. He is a 1993-batch IPS officer who has a PhD in traffic management. In his previous stints with the Bengaluru Traffic Department, M A Saleem…