Cycle tracks, parking space for bicycles, racks to lock your bike; all this may well become a reality soon in Bengaluru. Members of the cycling community are working towards developing this infrastructure in the city by working with the Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) and other organisations. The BMLTA has been set up by the government of Karnataka under the Urban Development Department as an umbrella organisation to land transport matters in the Bangalore metropolitan area. Cycling route (Pic and graphic courtesy: Vijay Narnapatti) RideACycle Foundation (RAC-F), a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation that encourages and promotes sustainable transport through cycling,…
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A toxic landfill project, which started operating from February 2009, at the outskirts of the city after facing stiff political and local opposition for five years, could be potentially hazardous for residents and villagers living in that area, warn environmental activists. Toxic Landfill at Dobbaspet (pic courtesy: GTZ) The Rs. 55 crore project, a joint venture of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KPSCB) and Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), a German engineering firm, is located almost 50 kilometres away from Bangalore in Dobbaspet near Tumkur Road (NH4) and aims to provide a long-term solution to the state's garbage disposal problem. Pollution…
Read moreN Sivasailam, BMRCL chief, explained Metro's position to a group of citizens waiting to hear him out, while those against the tree felling and metro's way of functioning voiced their protest. However, on the question of the Metro using the Lalbagh and R V Road, the Metro's own Detailed Project Report and Sivasailam’s explanations do not sit well together. The morning of Saturday, 9th May, saw a motley crowd of hundreds assemble along RV Road (popularly called Nanda Road) in Jayanagar. Two events were being held simultaneously. The first had been called by Jayanagar MLA Vijaykumar, who at the behest…
Read moreUmesh V and his colleagues at The Mobile Store on 24th Main Road, JP Nagar 2nd phase shell out around Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1500 a month, from their own pockets. The reason? Hijras come to their shop every day, demanding money, forcing them to pay anywhere between Rs. 10 and Rs. 50 per day. “In a day, they come around four to five times. In a group there are around three or four of them. If you do not give them money, they use bad words or attack us and pull our clothes,” says Umesh who has been facing…
Read more"You know what's my biggest nightmare?" asks 34-year-old bank manager Ameeta Srivastava from RT Nagar. "Forgetting to check my son's school diary at night and finding out during the mad morning rush that he's supposed to wear an eco-friendly outfit and take a green snack!" she says with a laugh. That offhand humorous take probably sums up the constant juggling act all working mothers have to do. Illustration: Narasimha Vedala Like Ameeta who commutes to MG Road, most working mothers in the city go through a day that begins early, watched by a clock that seems to tick extra fast…
Read moreThe Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike's fiasco at the JP Nagar 24th Main Road/15th Cross Ring Road intersection (underpass) is well known to south Bangalore residents in that area. A contractor had outsourced the work to another incompetent contractor who was later replaced by the BBMP. The project is months behind schedule and shows no sign of completion, with heaps of mud, broken dividers with mud all over and the main road dug up. 15th cross-ring road intersection dug up (Pic: Supriya Khandekar) In 2006, despite a clear warning from its own chief auditor on tendering, the BBMP violated the process…
Read moreThe Bangalore Metropolitan Transportation Corporation has for years allowed hundreds of drivers to get back behind the wheel after causing bus accidents that killed pedestrians, cyclists—and in some cases their own passengers, an IIJNM investigation has found. Watch the story here. Records and interviews show the massive agency fires a small percentage of the drivers it concludes were fully “at fault” for the fatal wrecks. Most are put back to work, in some cases with punishments no greater than if they had been involved in fender benders. And in a number of cases, the pattern of leniency backfired: drivers…
Read moreAshraff Unnissa of Alahalli vanished two years ago. So did Shanthamma, who was last seen in and around rural Yediyur. Then there's Geetha HR, who has clean vanished from her place of employment in Kodihalli. Pic courtesy: IIJNM All three are members of an elite yet dubious Karnataka club: Bangalore government school teachers with some of the worst absenteeism records in the state. They are gone, forcing their colleagues to pick up their long-forgotten class load. Never gone But in the twisted logic of the educational bureaucracy, they are not forgotten. Since their bosses in the district offices haven't purged…
Read moreReal estate activity contributes significantly to the overall economic output in India, as it does in most economies across the globe. The sub prime crisis in the US, triggered by the high default rate of sub prime home loan borrowers, has snowballed into an economic crisis that has pulled most of the world into its grip. The co-relation and co-existence of a flourishing real estate sector with a healthy economy has never been more obvious than it is now. Here’s a reality check on the situation in Namma Bengaluru. (File Pic: Meera K) Cause and effect of the last two…
Read moreOver the last week, hundreds of people have been vociferously protesting against the plans of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to build a Metro station in Lalbagh and to cut trees along the verdant Lakshman Rao Boulevard, popularly known as Nanda Road. On Sunday evening, 19th April, 250 people gathered along the tree lined road. They sang songs, shouted slogans (“Ulisi ulisi, Nanda Road ulisi”) and held a candle light vigil to protest against the proposed cutting of trees in Lakshman Rao Park. Earlier, on Friday, 17th April, about 220 people formed a human chain along RV Road…
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