City: Bengaluru

BMTC app to be relaunched in four months The BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation) app to track buses will be relaunched on February 26, 2022, with a new ITS (Intelligence Transport System). The project, funded by the Nirbhaya scheme, had been delayed due to COVID, said BMTC MD V Anbukumar. The app would give a range of information, from vehicle tracking to driver behaviour, seat occupancy and CCTV footage. Meanwhile, a study by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) showed that, assuming 30% electric vehicle (EV) penetration within BBMP limits, there will be a demand for…

The recent weeks have been difficult for Bengalureans. Bad roads and potholes we were already used to, especially around monsoon; but this year, the situation got worse. Garbage seems to be piling up once again. The biggest shock came when several buildings collapsed, just like that. Thankfully there is no loss of life, but it exposed the cracks in our system and made many of us wonder if all the unchecked growth is coming back to haunt us. While most citizens are outraged, very few express frustration publicly. A small subset of them want to ‘do something’ to ‘fix things’.…

They are not just a danger to life and limb. Bengaluru’s potholed roads are also inspiring artists and activists to get creative about their modes of protest at the poor state of the city’s roads. While artist Badal Nanjundaswamy frequently takes inspiration from a well-formed pothole to unleash his creativity, Aam Aadmi Party activists recently held a Pothole Habba to “celebrate” the city' potholes. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city’s civic body in charge of ensuring road quality had, in 2018, come up with a grand plan of concretising roads to erase potholes, presumably (and disputably) forever. Called white…

After I swallowed the anchor (a naval term for retirement), I settled down with my wife and two kids in an independent house in a suburb of Bengaluru. I was thrust into managing one's own resource in terms of electricity, water and waste we generate unlike the days when the navy took care of all this. My home is designed to be capable of generating its own power with minimal need of utilising power from the grid, and taking care of its water needs through proper conservation techniques, also a cool home which is not energy guzzling. The principles that…

In Part 1 of this series, we saw that pedestrians are at high risk on Bengaluru streets, especially groups like children and the elderly. In this part, we look at solutions to this problem. In the wake of COVID-19, Bengaluru, like many other cities worldwide, was put under a strict lockdown. During this time, as people stayed indoors and only left their homes to visit healthcare centers or to shop for essentials, they avoided long-distance travel. Hence hyper-local mobility increased; trips were made mostly on foot.  Car travel reduced drastically, and significant improvements were observed in traffic congestion, air quality…

BBMP schools to reopen primary sections BBMP schools will resume classes for grades I to V from Monday, October 25. No online classes were held for these students in the past one-and-half years; teachers only interacted with the students who accompanied their parents to collect rations from school, said an education department official. The teachers and non-teaching staff have been fully vaccinated, the official added. The 16 civic-run primary schools will be sanitised over the weekend. The strength of students in classes I to V will be ascertained once physical classes resume. Source: The Hindu Read more: The reality of…

For the past three years, Seema, a 35-year-old healthy woman has been running all outdoor errands for her family. She lives with her six-year-old son, her 42-year-old wheelchair-ridden husband, and a 70-year-old mother-in-law in a humble middle-income household. After her husband met with a road accident and lost his ability to walk, the family has been increasingly cautious about their outdoor activities.  Seema’s aged mother-in-law and disabled husband almost never leave the house unless a special van is rented. Seema always walks her son to and from the school bus, and at no time is he allowed to walk by…

With transportation identified as a major environment polluter, the move from fossil fuels to electric vehicles is seeing a major push from central and state governments. Consumers too are warming to the idea of switching to electric vehicles (EVs) for personal transport given that both petrol and diesel prices have crossed the Rs 100 per litre mark. Are we ready for this? ​ ADDA, the apartment management software platform and Citizen Matters organised an online panel discussion with different stakeholders on September 29th to look at possible solutions. The discussion focussed on how gated communities, in particular, could facilitate this…

The conditions of most roads in Bengaluru are as bad as they can possibly get. Potholes and slush have reduced the speed of all types of vehicles, increasing consumption of scarce fossil fuels like petrol, diesel etc., and also worsening atmospheric pollution. Citizens are losing patience. Fed up with the deteriorating conditions of roads, citizens have been registering/highlighting their grievances on social media via creative means. Some have even taken matters into their own hands and have started fixing roads by themselves. Yet the attitude of the executing authorities whose job it is to keep roads in good shape remains…

Houses, airport flooded The overnight rain of 18 cm between Monday night and Tuesday morning is the highest ever that the Met observatory at KIA (Kempegowda International Airport) recorded since it was set up in 2011. The roads leading to KIA were waterlogged due to the heavy rains on Monday night. Hence cabs and private vehicles were stranded, forcing some to depend on alternative modes of transport, even a tractor. BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Limited) sources said that 20 departing flights between 5.30 pm and 11.59 pm were delayed due to weather conditions. Heavy rains also flooded scores of houses…