City: Bengaluru

If one makes an early morning tour of areas like Lingarajapuram, Chikka Banaswadi, Kullapa Circle, Papareddy Palya, Kurubarahalli, Rajagopal Nagar, Peenya and Dasarahalli, they are likely to see groups of workers carrying construction tools and lunch boxes waiting on the roads and side streets, their eyes eagerly scanning the road  for contractors who will hire them as daily wage labourers. These spaces where the workers congregate every morning are known as Labour Stands and are an ubiquitous sight in many Indian cities. Many such labour stands exist in Bengaluru, yet few outside the world of contractors know about them. How do…

Lakshmi, a resident of Chikka Banaswadi in Bangalore, and the 30 other families who live there, have no access to water. Lakshmi buys nine plastic pots of water every day from shops nearby paying Rs 2 per pot. Even if each pot holds 20 litres, nine pots give Lakshmi, her husband and two children, just 180 litres of water per day for drinking, bathing, washing dishes, etc., whereas the Centre's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recommends daily water supply of 135 litres per capita in urban areas. Lakshmi, who lives in a slum in Chikka Banaswadi, spends Rs 18…

Peak traffic on the busiest section of Tannery Road in East Bengaluru occurs around 6 pm. The heavy traffic makes driving through this narrowest stretch of the road time consuming — taking about six minutes to cover a mere 500 metres. Small shops line one side of this street which earlier was 40 feet wide but has now been reduced to a little less than 20 feet. The other side has the now familiar blue barricades of Metro construction. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has had to demolish a water tank, gas agency and a few other shops…

With Bengaluru expanding, its peripheral areas like Sarjapur and Attibele, which were once villages, are now experiencing suburbanisation. Suburbanisation has enhanced the need for good roads and related infrastructure in these areas. Plus housing demand here is leading to a change in land-use patterns and expanding urban sprawl. One of the primary effects of this process is traffic congestion.  This area falls under the jurisdiction of the Attibele Town Municipal authority, with Attibele junction being the most congested on the Sarjapur-Attibele Road. It is the meeting point of seven roads from different directions, connecting different parts of this region to…

City records second-coldest day in May in past 50 years Thursday, May 12th, was the second-coldest day recorded in May in Bengaluru in the last 50 years. On The maximum temperature on the day was 23°C, way lesser than the normal of 34°C. The minimum temperature was 19.5°C. The coldest day in May in the last 50 years was on May 14th, 1972, when the maximum temperature stood at 22.2°C. A senior IMD official attributed the weather change to Cyclone Asani, adding that temperatures would rise again after May 14th. Source: Deccan Herald Hailstorm, heavy rainfall On Sunday, southern and…

“Nee Hodha Marudina” (The day after you left), an Ambedkarite song played in the background while the protesters arranged the tarpaulin mats for fellow workers. It was April 29, and they were marking the 150th day of the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) workers’ protest in front of one of the gates of the ITI premises at Doorvani Nagar, Bengaluru.   The ITI is one of the city’s oldest public sector units. The PSU is primarily engaged in the manufacturing telecommunication equipment, laying fibre optic cables for defence purposes in remote border locations as well as the processing of security and surveillance…

BBMP is constructing an underpass at Sarjapura Road at Harlur Road junction, much against local residents’ objections. Despite numerous attempts to engage with BBMP, the authorities are insisting on going ahead with this project. This insistence is surprising even as BBMP itself has recently talked about rejecting underpass solutions. Announced in 2016-17, the project to construct an underpass on Sarjapura Road at Harlur Road Junction was estimated to cost Rs 23 crores. While the proposal was based on the situation back in 2016-17, the ground situation has changed now with traffic management measures being taken, as well as a post-pandemic…

Karnataka presently generates around 500 tonnes of biomedical waste per month. Over 70% of this ends up in landfills, contaminating soil, water and air. Part of this includes medicines, which has only increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. While hospitals and clinics account for the bulk generation of the waste, they are governed by the Hazardous and Biomedical Waste Management Rules 2016, set out for them. This ensures that many of them follow some basic guidelines on responsible disposal of bio-medical waste.However, at the household level, there appear to be glaring gaps in the manner in which medical waste generated is…

Bengaluru city makes up only 6% of the Arkavathy river basin area, but is a major contributor to the river's pollution. Similar is the case with Vrushabhavathi river. Wastewater from industrial areas like Peenya, along with domestic sewage, is choking these rivers. Downstream, these rivers join the Cauvery, from which water is pumped up to meet the city's needs. This effectively means that the wastewater dumped by the city comes right back to it. This was illustrated in a presentation made by Nirmala Gowda, co-founder of the paani.earth website that maps the rivers of Karnataka. Nirmala was speaking at a…

New BBMP Chief Commissioner appointed On Thursday, Tushar Giri Nath replaced Gaurav Gupta as the BBMP Chief Commissioner. Giri Nath, a 1993-batch Karnataka-cadre IAS officer, was serving as Principal Secretary in the Revenue department. Gupta will now be Additional Chief Secretary in the Infrastructure department. The state government has transferred several other IAS officers as well. Of late, BBMP has been mired in controversies related to pothole accidents, waterlogging and incomplete infrastructure projects. Source: Indian Express Govt yet to approve BBMP budget BBMP is still awaiting the state government's approval for its 2021-22 budget which has an outlay of Rs…