Bellandur

Accessible through one of the four apartments that surrounds it, Lower Ambalipura lake is a thing of beauty. A short stroll around the lake shows what it has to offer - herbs, fruit-bearing trees, a grassy wetland and the sight of birds inhabiting the island. It is quiet, save for the calls of the birds, and the wind rustling through the leaves of plants that line the walkway. Lower Ambalipura lake is a seven-acre lake in Haralur, surrounded by four apartments- Mantri Flora, Trinity Acres and Woods, SJR Redwood and SJR Park Vista. It is maintained by MAPSAS (Mahadevpura Parisara…

This Saturday, representatives of over 50 large apartments in Bellandur ward of Mahadevpura constituency met their MLA Aravind Limbavali, demanding a solution to their water woes. Majority of these apartments, located within the 110 villages that became part of BBMP a decade ago, have no BWSSB connections yet. The few who do have BWSSB connections, mostly on the Outer Ring Road side, get erratic supply. Their borewells have dried up, and they are paying cutthroat amounts to private tankers to fulfil their minimum water requirements. Even then, they don’t have enough water. BBMP asked to supply water, reign in private…

Iblur lake is almost ready! Those of you who travel by the lake may have noticed that the lake bed has been cleaned and levelled, the bund has been built, and bund walls pitched with stone. Water inlets and outlets have been constructed, and the newly built storm water drains along Outer Ring Road will bring rainwater runoff into the lake. Once Hoskote Gravel is laid on the bund, the walking/jogging path would be complete. Joggers and walkers have already started using the lake. Birds also make occasional stopovers. We, local residents who had formed the Iblur Lake Forum, are…

BMTC has launched three new bus routes along the IT corridor, to service Sarjapur Road neighbourhoods. In a mini function today, MLA NA Haris, MLC Rizwan Arshad and Bellandur corporator Asha Suresh flagged off the new service. Two of the routes run in a loop to Electronic City - one in clockwise and the other in anti-clockwise direction - covering neighbourhoods like Kasavanahalli, Doddakannalli, Haralur and HSR Layout. The third route runs in a loop to Carmelaram Railway Station, covering Doddakannalli, Kadubisanahalli, Bellandur Gate and Kaikondrahalli. Residents along Sarjapur Road have been demanding BMTC services to these areas. The Kasavanahalli…

On Saturday, October 27th, the city will be witness to yet another human chain, organised this time by the disgruntled citizens of Bellandur, one of the largest wards of Bengaluru with a tax collection of Rs 220 crore. The residents of the ward seek to highlight their issues and put forth their demands to make Bellandur livable. Residents point to the serious discrepancy of funds and infrastructure for the ward by all standards. As per the BBMP Budgetary expenditure (Source: Janaagraha), Bellandur (27 sq km) has got an allocation of Rs 6-7 crore in the annual budget. Considering the parameters…

In April last year, Citizen Matters had published an article on Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Urban Development Department apologising to the National Green Tribunal (NGT); This was after the BBMP had claimed the NGT’s order increasing the buffer zone to 75 metres was not applicable retrospectively. The NGT was upset, and lashed out at the state bodies, objecting to the term ‘quasi-judicial body,’ which the agencies had used to describe the Tribunal. As a result, the Karnataka government’s Urban Development Department and the BBMP retracted the notifications that clarified the NGT ruling, and apologised to the Tribunal.…

It was a day filled with obvious contrasts  - the kind that would ideally help make right decisions about the nightmare that we know as urban transport in Bangalore. The question of mass transit versus private vehicles was never answered more effectively for me. On Friday, the last day of August, I was slated to cover the Rail Yatra that was being organised by Citizens For Bengaluru, to reiterate their demand for a suburban rail service for the city. The 3 pm train was to start from Yeshvanthpur and reach Heelalige, a picturesque little station (reminiscent of R K Narayan’s Malgudi…

One may not know Lalbagh or Cubbon Park. They may not have heard of Malleswaram or Basavanagudi. Bull temple, Commercial Street, City Market alien words. You can be sure they never heard 'pete', 'kote' and 'kere' But we can be pretty sure everyone heard about the burning, frothing lake - "Bellandur" is as famous as our traffic. I can safely bet you did not know there is also a Railway Station at Bellandur. Yes, Bellandur Road (BLRR) station is a functional railway station with single platform. As the picture indicates, it is quite a sight and photographer's delight. Bellandur Road…

B'luru ranked in 58th position on livability index Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri released the 'Ease of Living Index–2018’ on August 13th. Bengaluru was ranked in 58th place in the overall list, among 111 Indian cities surveyed, based on aggregated scores in four categories: institutional governance, social, economic and physical infrastructure. To ensure accurate reflection of the ease of living in Indian cities through this ranking, marks were awarded against 78 indicators in 15 sub-categories. Barring the category of open spaces, in which the former garden city fared reasonably well in 16th place, Bengaluru was at the bottom of the list…

Promoting the use of soap nuts to control chemical detergent pollution in lakes is an admirable green initiative. But it is wrong to project that it would totally eliminate the foam at Bellandur lake. This not only is false, but it also deflects the focus away from the real issues plaguing Bellandur lake. The Government of Karnataka has allocated 50 crores to the tasks outlined in the National Green Tribunal's Expert Committee Report. The work on those fronts needs to start soon. The foam issue is very minor compared to heavy metals in the water, which poison both water and food,…