City: Bengaluru

Bangalore Bus day! For all those who are crying hoarse about Bangalore's transport system this must come as a shock. What is there to celebrate you say? Let me take you on a trip down memory lane and you tell me.My schooling started with bus commutes, morning and evening. That means 16 years of friendship with the six wheeled wonder. Back in the '80s there weren't so many buses. I used to take the route number 137 from Yeshwanthpur to Ulsoor which would be available only once in two hours. Almost always, the buses were jam packed and foot board…

Close to 500 employees from companies within the Salarpuria Softzone campus including National Instruments, Airvana Akamai, SonicWall and so on were treated to a collection of bikes from Track & Trail and SportsXS on January 22nd.It was the first of the cycling workshops conducted by Bangalore Bikers Club (BBC) in 2010. The workshop also provided a platform for existing bikers within the campus to know each other and may be start group commutes and ask for cyclist friendly facilities within the campus. Pic credit: Krish. Personal cycles from members of BBC were displayed for participants to check out. It was…

A public awareness meeting for Madiwala Lake development was held at Kuvempu Park, 15th Main, BTM Layout, 2nd stage on January 16 th that 6.30 PM. The discussion organised by Kuvempunagar Permanent Resident’s Welfare Association (KPRWA). Around 20 members of the association had participated in the discussion.  V Ganesh, Range Forest Officer of Karnataka Forest department was the chief guest.Ganesh requested the residents to join hands for the Madiwala lake development programme, saying “It is not possible for the authorities alone to save the environment without help from the public”.“South Bangalore doesn’t have a lake. So once the lake is…

Dhanvantari Park in JP Nagar II phase has been in the news recently. The move to install an idol of Dhanvantari, regarded as the god of Ayurveda and a shelter for the same, has become a controversy. Some residents including Kannada litterateur K Marulasiddappa were concerned that a shrine was getting built in a public space, in violation of rules, as per a report in The Hindu, dated December 5th. Work stalled at Dhanvantari park. Pic: Sangeetha Ramakrishnan. “Dhanwantari Park is not connected to any caste or religion. The idol of Dhanwanthari has been donated by the Bank of Baroda,…

Most connoisseurs of food opine that the true variety of a particular region's cuisine is best seen in the lunch menu offered at a wedding in that region. A meal at Maiya's is probably the closest one can get to an Udupi style Madhuve Oota (lunch at a wedding).At a time when Udupi style restaurants can be found in every nook and corner of Bangalore, what sets Maiya's apart from the rest of the pack is the fact that they offer something for everyone. The variety ranges from Idli-Vada-Dosa type breakfast to North Indian fine dining cuisine. The reason why…

Kempe Gowda ward. Chowdeshwari ward. Atturu. Yelahanka Satellite town. Jakkur. Thanisandra. Byatarayanapura. Kodigehalli. Vidyaranyapura. Dodda Bommasandra. Kuvempu Nagar.If you reside in any of these wards, it is likely that you have either been visited or will soon be, by officials seeking information about your property. These are officials of a not-for-profit organisation called My Bhumi, who are carrying out a 'property survey' on behalf of the BBMP, for Wards 1 to 11 in North Bangalore.“Many people are not paying tax, that's why we are doing this. We will feed this into the computer. We will get name of owner, type…

WARD 178 - Sarakki, JP Nagar 6th Phase, LIC Quarters.North: By Sarakki Main Road 9th Cross.East: By 13th Main, 13th Cross, 8th A Main Road,Outer Ring Road, 12th Main Road.South: By 17th A Cross, 15th Main 18th Cross, 17thCross, Cross Road(Existing WardBoundary),22nd Main, Existing WardBoundary, Cross Road,Source: bbmpwards.infoWhen Citizen Matters approached the residents of Sarakki (Ward 178), they echoed concerns about garbage clearance, regulating traffic, encroachments on footpaths, and the condition of roads.Mahesh A R and M S Ramesh who run businesses on Sarakki main road, hoped that the authorities would take note of the traffic congestion in this area,…

As most of you know, the Bangalore Elevated Tollway from Electronic City (E-City) upto Bommanahalli was inaugurated by the Union minister, Kamal Nath, last week. The government hailed it as a successful project completed in record time. I have been using it since last week, and this is what I observed. The elevated highway in use. Pic: Thejesh G N. Even though my travel time from E-City to Silk Board junction has reduced by 20 minutes, I clearly see the bottleneck shifting to St Johns, north of Silk Board and to E-City Phase I main entrance in the south. The…

Yet another road-widening project in Bengaluru has hit a roadblock as residents and shop owners raise the flag against BBMP’s Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) scheme. TDR scheme has come in for more fire. This time, shop owners, tenants, and residents of Tannery Road in East Bangalore are protesting against the road-widening work ordered by BBMP in their area. Tannery Road - Nagavara Owners/ Merchants Association office bearers and members, with Legislative Council Chairman Veeranna Mattikatti and guests at the Republic Day 2010 celebrations. Pic: Karunya Keshav. “We are not opposing road widening. We oppose TDR,” says Ahmed Baseer, property…

City elections may not happen on February 21st. On January 28th the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka state government to follow the ruling of the Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka of December 8th. In that ruling, the High Court had asked the government to re-do the ward reservations list for Bengaluru in line with the 2001 census data for the Bangalore municipal area. With the ward reservation list quashed, the BBMP council elections are likely to not take place as scheduled. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal The State Election Commission (SEC) today told Citizen Matters that they have written…