City: Bengaluru

“I have been selling coconuts here for 30 years and one thing that I can assure you is that this line to Whitefield will be of great help to commuters,” says Arif, a coconut seller outside KR Puram metro station. “Everyday I see people running to catch buses and waiting hours at the bus stop. With the metro coming, traffic too should reduce.” The much awaited KR Puram-Whitefield Metro line, likely to become operational in March, is expected to bring relief to thousands of daily commuters, most of whom are tech professionals working in and near Whitefield. Metro ridership is…

Push for suburban railway, city projects The Union Budget has allocated Rs 450 crore for the BSRP (Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project), with a total capital outlay of Rs 1,350 crore for 2023-24. However, not a single rupee has been released by the Centre for a similar sum earmarked for the project in the previous financial year, sources said. Meanwhile, the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited has sought an €800-million (Rs 7,140 crore) soft loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the German investment and development bank KfW, which will cover 60% of the project cost. Parallelly, the state…

According to Hindu mythology, God’s first avatar on earth was a fish. And now scientists reveal that life first developed in the oceans. Whether related to that or not, trading in fish has been an important source of human livelihood and nutrition for aeons. But none of that was even remotely in my  mind when I tucked into four nicely cut and cleaned Silver Pomfret fish pieces I had bought from a local fish seller.  With several grocery and fresh meat apps on my phone, it has been a while since I visited a fish shop. As a kid, buying…

In the run up to the biennial Aero India show, BBMP has issued an order banning the slaughter or sale of meat within ten kilometres of the Yelahanka Airforce Station. This year the air show and aviation expo is scheduled to be held from February 13th to February 17th and meat shops have been asked to shut shop and restaurants and eateries have been asked to desist serving meat for 20 days, starting from January 30th till February 20th. The order is issued on the basis of the BBMP Act 2020 and Indian Aircraft Rules 1937 rule 91. This long…

I remember a story my uncle once told me. He was working in an IT office in Whitefield, and his team was scheduled to have an office meeting one morning. But that morning the boss asked if the meeting could be held online as that they were all stuck in the same traffic jam. I am reminded of this anecdote every time I get stuck in traffic in Bengaluru, which is often. Since my uncle’s time, traffic snarls in the city have only worsened, forcing the government to finally step in to improve vehicular movement on the roads.  Reportedly reacting to…

In October 2022, the Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML), the company set up by BBMP for waste management, announced its decision to set up five new plants specifically to process construction and demolition waste. But does the city need five new plants? As one of the fastest growing cities in the country, Bengaluru is constantly being broken down and built up. This steady influx of roads, flyovers, pavements and buildings result in a considerable amount of waste being generated in the form of a variety of materials, including leftover cement, broken concrete, glass, wood, granite. Over 2,500 tonnes of…

This year started off with the Bengaluru Metro rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) being in the news for its promise to make nearly 40 kilometres of metro lines operational in 2023. This included the extension of the purple line from Byappanahlli to Whitefield and reopening the Yellow line from R.V Road station to Bommasandra. However, in early January this year, there were tragic reports about an under-construction metro pillar in HBR Layout, along the KP Puram- Airport stretch, collapsing on a mother-son duo, who succumbed to their injuries. An inspection report, submitted by Professor J M Chandra Kishen of the civil…

R-Day at Chamrajnagar Idgah Maidan For the first time, Republic Day was celebrated, on January 26th, at the Chamrajnagar Idgah Maidan ground amid tight security, as North taluk assistant commissioner, revenue department, Shivanna, unfurled the national flag at 8 am. MLA BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan and Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha MP, PC Mohan, were also present, under elaborate security. Naadageethe and Raitha Geete were played, and later, students from BBMP and government schools performed cultural programmes. The West Division police deployed over 150 police personnel and installed over 50 CCTV cameras. There were celebrations at a number of places in…

I am a final year student in one of Bengaluru's well known colleges and am currently living in a paying guest accommodation. But I have a health condition and have been advised to cook my own food and not eat outside food. Renting a flat would be an ideal option. So I went to look for flats in SG Palya in South Bengaluru. Aurum Inn, a recently completed residential building, was one of the first apartment complexes I walked into. “Madam, we don’t give flats to single women, it is only for families,” said one of the workers as soon…

The leather tanning industry employs 4.42 million workers in India and accounts for 13% of global leather production. However, the dark side of this industry is that leatherwork exposes its workers to several chemicals, most of which are carcinogenic or have substances that can cause cancer. Research reports the increase in risks for a number of cancers among tannery workers, highlighting their occupational exposure and the allied vulnerability. The tannery workers in Bengaluru are aware of the hazards. C Pasha, who collects skins or hides for the curing units, was quoted in an article saying "people in this work die…