DATA

Bengaluru’s air quality has been seriously worsening post COVID. The annual levels of PM10 saw a decline between 2018 and 2021, but has been slowly increasing since then. Government authorities say that the air quality in Bengaluru is better compared to other cities. But while the PM2.5 levels may conform to the national standards, according to a Greenpeace report it is still four to nine times higher than WHO standards. There is thus a huge need for improvement. The city, however, has used very little of the clean air funds received under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Also non-utilisation…

As Bengaluru struggles with an ongoing water crisis, it reports a shortage of about 500 million litres of water every day. The significant water problem in the city is frequently blamed on insufficient rainfall, unregulated groundwater exploitation, and environmental negligence. However, it is essential to investigate water contamination, notably from sewage and industrial effluents, as a major cause of the water crisis. The focus then moves to Shivpura Lake in the Peenya Industrial Area.  Although a key industrial area, Peenya is neglected, as evidenced by its poor infrastructure and pollution issues. Shivpura Lake, in particular, is contaminated by the surrounding…

In December 2023, many parts of Chennai received record-breaking rains for two days. Though the event of cyclone occurrence was the same throughout the city, the capacity to recover from the aftermath was not the same for all. Experts say the reasons for this recovery variability could be attributed to infrastructure resilience such as sewage treatment capacity, water supply, water holding capacity of reservoirs and waterbodies encroachment. These physical parameters are intensified by the socio-economic status such as the livelihood, income levels, social status of people and assets across different parts of Chennai. Here, it is important to look at…

According to the recently released 2023 Bengaluru Crime Data, there is a significant gap between reported and detected crimes in the city.  In 2023, 12,627 cases of total crimes were reported, of which only 3,603 crimes were detected. This shows a gap of 71.48% between reported and detected cases. From 2022 to 2023, there seems to have been a 36% rise in crimes across the city, driven by various motives. However, sudden and grave provocation topped the list for motives. “We can never definitely say that crime has increased or decreased, because crime is always there, only the trend in…

In the first of this two-part series, we discussed the quality of the building plans sanction dataset on the BBMP website. The data is potentially crucial in informing, visualising and guiding the built-form in the city. Thus, the imperative to streamline and quality-check the data collation exercise cannot be over emphasised. In the second part, we illustrate the insights from this data. The publicly available data was used to understand the direction and typology of built growth expansion across time at the city, zonal and ward scale. These insights, we argue, are critical inputs for planning and managing the city.…

After a steady reduction from 2017 to 2020, the city witnessed an increase in waste collection from 5500 Metric Tonnes per day (MTD) in 2020-21 to 6300 MTD in 2021-22, says a report released by Praja Foundation. The highest contributor is wet (food) waste which comprises 73% of the total garbage collected at the landfills. The report on the status of civic issues in Mumbai, highlighted challenges in solid waste management, sewerage and water bodies. Moreover, due to the deteriorating sanitisation facilities, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) failed the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) 5-Star Rating of 'Garbage Free Cities' in…

A lot has changed in Bengaluru in the last 20 years. Millions of people moved in and made the city their home in the last decade. Lakhs of jobs have been added. Infrastructure too has been added to keep pace with the growing population. Municipal wards went from 100 to 198 to now 243. A new BBMP Act has been enacted that extended the Mayor's term from one year to 2.5 years. The BBMP Act also brought in Zonal level Commissioners and Zonal Councils. We saw so many Chief Ministers, Bengaluru Ministers, Commissioners, and Mayors but one thing remained more…

An analysis of BBMP's work order data over the last five years shows 74% of funds were meant for roads and drain works. From "Remodelling of stormwater drains, culverts-bridges and allied works" to "White Topping on selected roads" - the packages range from a few lakhs to many a crore. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bengaluru’s city government, administers an area with a population of around 12 million and has a budget of around Rs 11,000 crore as of 2023-24. In spite of its massive expenditure on civic works, BBMP is often in the news for all the wrong reasons,…

Bengaluru is a mess! Traffic is horrendous. Garbage is not picked up and lakes are polluted. Unplanned development is affecting the quality of life.  'I pay my taxes - why am I not getting services?!' But are you going to be voting on May 10th? No? Why not? 'C'mon, one vote does not matter!' This is a myth that needs to be busted especially in Bengaluru. In our city, the winning margins are very thin! Bengaluru's story of low turnout Over eight Bengaluru constituencies have a deplorable turnout of less than 50% last time, which is in the bottom third…

Traffic, or mobility in general, has been one of the biggest challenges Bengaluru has faced for decades now. While diverse solutions in the form of flyovers, underpasses, signal-free corridors, grade separators, and road-widening have been tried, the issue has defied a sustainable solution. Most experts have pointed out that the only way to solve congestion is to plan to move people, not personal vehicles, and that public transport is the best investment for the city.  Problem statement In the “Bengaluru Constituencies Datajam'', conducted by OpenCity.in on April 1st, we looked at public transport in terms of accessibility to Metro and BMTC…