BCity

Alahalli Lake & Neighborhood Development Trust (ALNDT) has organised a lake cleaning activity on Sunday 25th August 2013, 7a.m. to 10 a.m. The public is requested to spare some time to help and support the trust's efforts to bring life back to this lake.  This Sunday's target jobs:- Cleaning the bund area- Removing the plants which are covering the fencing- Tree plantations on the bund- Removing the parthenium and other wild bushes that have grown around the lake. Volunteers can come with comfortable clothing and closed shoes. And if possible, with an apron and whatever gardening tools they have. Arrangements for…

BMTC is about to roll out the second generation of the Big10 system. In the first instance, the system shifted from destination orientation to direction orientation along the Big 10 arterial radials of the city (later expanded to 12). Then we added the BigCircle routes, and the cross-cutting routes of the K series. Now comes the next phase - a full trunk-and-feeder system to be deployed first on Hosur Road and then on the other arterials. Here are some of the key features (and I'll discuss each of them in detail in future posts).(a) Electronic City, Chandapura, and Attibele will be…

Yelahanka Lake, covering 292 acres is one of the largest lakes in Bangalore, under the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Home to many birds, ornithologist Dr Subramanya recorded as many as 33 species during a one-hour visit to the lake in November 2012. About 14 acres of the lake was encroached by illegal buildings and hutments, but over the past year, in multiple operations, the BBMP has successfully evicted the encroachers, regained possession of the property, and is now looking to restore it.  Yelahanka Lake and the neighbouring Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake To initiate the restoration, the BBMP…

Restoration work at the Munnekolala Lake in the AECS Layout near Marathahalli began about three months ago, but not before several months of pursuing the BBMP, the custodian of the lake, to save it. The AECS Layout actually has a set of three lakes, known to residents as the “Chinnappanahalli lakes”. The Munnekolala Lake, at 15.38 acres is the largest of them. The smaller 11.33 acre Chinnappanahalli Lake (located behind CMRIT College) was already restored by the BBMP in around 2010 and is currently being looked after by the Chinnappanahalli Lake Development Trust. The third lake, according to area residents…

A lot of infrastructure that we have in the city is deliberately bad. Take the example of shoulder drains on roads. More than 200 years have passed since it was scientifically proven that water flows better in a cylindrical container than in a rectangular container (and it was known, empirically, even before the proof). So why do our 'engineers' in the city - with various titles - keep building rectangular shoulder drains?Simple - because the cronies of the corporators who hijack these contracts are not competent enough to build anything else. All they know is to pour cement (and by…

We have been inviting you to bring your family along for "weekend gardening" at the lake. Some of the volunteers this past weekend did just that!    Our regular volunteers Mithilesh and Chandrika, a young couple from 24th Main came with the former's mother and sister. Balakrishnan and his 10 year old son Girish; Regu and youngster Sanjay from Brigade Millennium, Shubha, son Sharad and daughter Ashraya from South City, Nagalakshmi and nephew Gautham from Puttenahalli joined other individual volunteers and together did a lot of work at the lake last Saturday and Sunday.    The tone was set on…

BWSSB's decision to charge higher water charges only from those who live in apartment communities but not from those who live in single family homes makes no sense, nor is it actually executable. There is a tendency in the agencies to impose higher expectations on those in apartment communities, and even this is done selectively (we are seeing this in SWM also, having to fight against such discrimination). Moreover, those who think up such things are always careful to exempt communities like LIC quarters and BSNL quarters and KEB quarters, because these are not 'private' apartment communities.I agree that BWSSB…

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) has now opened a FaceBook page. The page states: This is  the official BESCOM Page, containing information about Interruptions and BESCOM Procedures. The Meeting Proceedings [ORM/CRM/Board Meeting etc] will be available in this Page. You may post your grievances here which will be attended and resolved. But for any immediate grievances please feel free to contact our central helpline 080-22873333 or just SMS your grievance to 92431 50000 in the format given belowBESCOM<space>Sub-Division<space>nature_of_complaint   BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company)  has opened a new Face Book page, in a customer-friendly initiative:   <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bescom/669321596427980"> click…

Here are details on property tax payment for 2012-13, as per BBMP's press release: • Financial year for 2012-13 begins on April 1st.• As there has been no revision in taxes, tax can be paid as per last year. There is no change in self-declared tax and building depreciation.• Property tax can be paid at all BBMP offices and Bangalore One centers on all working days. Payment hours are from 9 am to 12.30 pm, and from 3 pm to 7 pm.• If the entire year's property tax is paid by 30th April, you can get a rebate of 5%.…