GENRE: In Focus

Amidst the complaints raised by residents of HSR Layout, Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) is busy laying pipelines across the city to provide piped natural gas to households in Bengaluru as a part of its City Gas Distribution (CGD) project. However, many people are unaware of what is going on - as we see roads dug up, trenches and warning signage in front of homes. GAIL's map for the City Gas Distribution Project in Bengaluru. Here is all you should know about CGD. What is City Gas Distribution Project? Control Room for GAIL Gas Ltd 080 6888 8081 City…

With the absence of major rivers, floods in Bengaluru are caused only by rainfall. Knowing which are the months that are vulnerable to floods helps in taking necessary precautions. Primary rainy season in the city is from June to September when Bengaluru receives rain from South-West Monsoon, and secondary rainy season is from November to December when it receives rain from North-East Monsoon. Here is the raw data for rainfall in 100 years, from 1901 to 2000. This exhaustive data is plotted in graphs for each month.    100 years rainfall graph for the month of January  100 years rainfall…

To view map, see: http://bl.ocks.org/anonymous/raw/9c840f92880646cba8901cb90c861eef Thyagaraya Nagar is one of the busiest commercial hubs in Chennai. It has a diverse mix of residential complexes, big and small commercial establishments, educational institutions and entertainment facilities. The constituency has voted against the winning party in five assembly elections since 1962, and is hence known for voting against the trend. The AIADMK has been in power since 2006. Before that, the Tamil Maanila Congress was elected here in 1996 and the DMK in 2001. T Nagar constituency comprises the wards Vadapalani (West), Vadapalani (East), Kalaivanar Nagar, Navalar Nedunchezian Nagar (East), Navalar Nedunchezian Nagar (West),…

The first part of this series looked at how Bengaluru expanded it self over the years, and how it has affected urban flood scenario in the city. This part explores how the surface water bodies have diminished and its effect on the flood scenario of Bengaluru city. By now you would know that Majestic bus station was a lake once - Dharmambudhi lake. And that Bengaluru was a land of lakes once. What changed this, and why? In a city like Bengaluru, lakes assume special importance. They provide lung space, groundwater recharge, biodiversity and recreational activities like boating and fishing.…

Flooding that took place at PES campus in Electronic City during August 2014. Pic: Sent by a reader. While Chennai is recuperating from the torrential rains that wreaked havoc in the city last week, a question that stands before Bengalureans is: to what extent is our city prepared to handle such a situation? Considering that Bengaluru is not immune to floods and 1,077 areas are flood-prone according to BBMP, we tried to know from various government agencies about their preparedness to handle a situation like that of Chennai flood. Here’s what came out of it. Coordination is the key Whenever…

In Part I of the series, the viewpoint of plastic manufacturing industry was captured. Part II of the series explored what could be done with plastic. Part III explored the green job options that will get created because of plastic ban. Here is part IV. Every time a city inundates in deluge, the primary reason seems to be the drains getting choked with plastic. Low weight plastic carry bags that are of low recycling value end up on roadsides or garbage dumps, causing water logs during unexpected rains. The health impacts of plastic are numerous. All this together prompted the…

The Bengaluru City Police don’t have authority to regulate traffic, drunk driving and speed on this private toll road. As a result of unchecked speed and not following regulations, there are deadly accidents every year on this road. When asked to take action, the company asks the government to disapprove any kind of inspection from police, and removes speed limits set for the road. And we are talking about NICE road, built by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE). Citizen Matters had published an article Top 10 acciden-prone places in Bengaluru based on the data collected from Bangalore Traffic Police. Electronic…

In July 2005, when 900 mm of monsoonal rains hammered Mumbai for a 24-hour period and wreaked havoc on the city’s infrastructure and housing, political leaders in Karnataka reassured us that Bengaluru was immune to flooding given its inland location some 3,000 ft above sea-level on the Deccan Plateau. Those assurances proved foolhardy. In October that year, over half of Bengaluru’s road network was inundated and thousands of homes and commercial establishments damaged following four days of unusually strong monsoonal rainfall. Floods in Bengaluru during October 2005, in Bommanahalli area. Pic: Champaka Rajagopal Ten years later, Chennai continues to reel…

Kasa - Rasa center. Pic: Pinky Chandran "There was a time when I didn't have enough food to eat. Now I am so busy that I don't have enough time for food," says Krishna, once a waste picker, now runs  Domlur Dry Waste Collection Center Ward no 112, and employs six people. Krishna is one of the many informal waste sector workers that run the Dry Waste Collection Centers (DWCC) in Bengaluru. DWCCs were set up following a Lok Adalat’s intervention directing the Municipality to set up these centers to enable ward level recycling in 2010. The Karnataka High Court…

People find it easy and cheap to use plastic carry bags. Pic: Shree D N Smitha is a homemaker in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru. Every time her husband gets vegetables from the market in lightweight white plastic carry bag, she saves it carefully. Everyday she puts one such plastic carry bag into the wastebin in her kitchen. She ties the carry bag with the wet and dry waste neatly and puts it for disposal everyday, for the BBMP garbage auto to take it away. Smitha doesn’t care about what happens to this carry bag later—that it might end up in an animal’s stomach…