City: Bengaluru

I was born and brought up in Mumbai but am currently based in Bengaluru. So traffic jams do not deter me from reaching my destination. But Bengaluru’s traffic issues seem to be different in some respects. To understand better why it happens and what it is like to be stuck in Bengaluru’s traffic jam, I decided to travel through Iblur Junction at the peak-morning-office hours by two different modes of commute: a two-wheeler and a BMTC bus. The Iblur Junction is the main connecting point between the Ambalipura-Sarjapur Road and the Outer Ring Road. Hence sees dense traffic and not…

The Karnataka High Court recently told BBMP officials that poor roads are giving a very bad name to Bengaluru. The court was hearing a PIL related to potholes. The issue of poor road maintenance has dominated the local news space for years now. But what is the root cause of this frustrating situation? In earlier articles, we explored how some areas of Bengaluru manage to have good roads without potholes, and how it was about maintaining proper drains and ensuring regular maintenance. We then explored what BBMP’s own guidelines say about maintaining drains and how much the guidelines are followed…

Reports of massive fish kill events in lakes across Bengaluru come up worryingly often every year after the first monsoon showers. This year was no different. Ulsoor, Basavanapura, Muthanallur and Bhattarahalli are some of the lakes in which dead fish were found floating over the last few weeks. What is causing this morbid scene year after year in a city famed for its many water bodies? Pollution is one culprit. What are the other factors involved? How exactly do these interact and impact lake ecosystems? And what needs to be focused on to prevent such events? To understand the whole…

Ratan Kumar, a migrant worker from Jamalpur in Bihar’s Khagaria district, lives in a small, dingy room along with five other workers, also from Bihar. The room, which is poorly ventilated and has no other amenities, is part of the construction site in the Sarjapur area where he works. As buildings under construction do not have electricity, Ratan and his friends manage with candlelight at night and feel vulnerable to rodents and snakes, given all the debris and other waste lying all over the site. "I cannot afford a rented room as I have to support a wife and four…

Revised COVID guidelines Due to rising COVID cases, the State Health and Family Welfare Department has issued revised guidelines for apartment complexes, educational institutions and offices, based on recommendations of the COVID Technical Advisory Committee. Apartment complexes with three to five cases on a floor are now considered small clusters, and symptomatic individuals on the floor should be tested. If more than five cases are detected, all symptomatic individuals in the block/tower should be tested. And if more than 15 cases are reported, all symptomatic individuals in the complex should be tested. Swimming pools and other recreational areas are to…

May 17th was a bad day for residents of three low-lying lanes at HBR 5th Block Layout, near Manyata Tech Park. That day's heavy downpour saw all their homes being flooded, causing losses of tens of thousands of rupees. K Sai Kiran, a resident, estimates his loss at Rs 79,000 from the heavy rain that day. This includes Rs 50,000 for damaged furniture, Rs 10,000 to fix damaged electrical appliances, Rs 15,000 for car repair, and Rs 4,000 to clean up the house. Another resident Vijay estimates his loss at Rs 60,000 from similar damage. Ashwini Sreetama says her losses…

It has been eight years now since we started down this path without setting any goals to reach anywhere. It was our son Nihar’s choice to learn at home by making things and working on projects rather than only through books. He proposed that to us, when he entered Class 4, as he felt that he wasn't finding enough time to do the things he wanted to do. As parents, we valued his need to be free from systems and structures and to be motivated by his innate sense of wonder and curiosity. Today, he is 18 and a co-founder…

Do you live in an apartment with its own sewage treatment plant (STP)? Do you know how much of the treated water is reused and how much ends up clogging the city's stormwater drains? Despite laws in place in Bengaluru that mandate the setting up of decentralised plants and 'zero discharge', i.e. for all the treated water to be used up within the apartment fence, turns out reuse levels remain alarmingly low. The city now has over 3,000 decentralised STPs, which treat 615 million litres of sewage every day. Centralised STPs generate another 650 MLD of treated water. But the…

Two-and-half months since the BMTC introduced digital passes, demand for these passes remains low. According to A V Surya Sen, Director (Information Technology) at BMTC, only 17,645 digital passes were active on June 22nd. This comes to less than 1% of BMTC's average daily ridership of 25 lakh. In pre-pandemic times, use of paper passes was common among BMTC passengers. For example, a BMTC survey of 2019 had showed that 48% of those surveyed used paper passes. It seems few have converted to digital passes. Launched on April 6th, the total number of digital passes issued so far (including expired…

BBMP ward delimitation draft out State government notified the draft of the BBMP ward delimitation report on Thursday. As per the draft, the number of BBMP wards will increase from 198 to 243. Ward boundaries have been redrawn based on the 2011 Census population numbers. As per the draft, out of 28 Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru, 17 now have higher ward numbers. Ward numbers have remained the same in eight other constituencies. Whereas three constituencies - Jayanagar, Shivajinagar and Chamarajpet, all ruled by the Congress party - now have fewer wards than earlier. Opposition MLAs called the exercise “gerrymandering” to…