GENRE: Voices

For those of us who have lived in London, there is one thing we'd absolutely agree - it won't take you more than a couple of days to understand the public transport system. The flow of information is seamless, and there's no blindspot that leaves you in a lurch on either a crowded Regent Street or a quieter lane in Wimbeldon. Visible signboards about how to go forward - whether you use tubes or buses - are all around. Bus stands are never more than 400 yards from a tube station. The public transport service in London is also consistently…

Pink is the colour of women empowerment in Tamil Nadu these days. Most Chennaiites are, by now, familiar witnesses to the pink patrol vehicles of police in different parts of the city. The Amma Patrol is part of the Tamil Nadu government’s initiative that saw the formation of the Crime against Women and Children (CWC) wing in June 2019. The wing brings all departments dealing with incidents against women and children -- women police stations, anti-child trafficking units, juvenile police units — under a single platform. But what does the Amma Patrol do, exactly?  The patrol vehicles, the latest addition…

A few days ago, Tejasvi Surya, MP for Bangalore South, created news when he worked with various stakeholders - BBMP, BWSSB, BMRCL etc - to help clear the mess that was Bannerghatta Road. He coordinated a joint meeting with these departments and relatively eased life for thousands of commuters who use this road. A lot of people were impressed that an MP got down into the grit of solving the basic infrastructure problems that plague our city. But that's just the point here. Dealing with a bad road isn't his job as an MP! Just so we are clear, this…

The convenience that app-cabs provide to citizens has brought with it the unfortunate reality of harassment and molestation cases involving cab drivers. With newspapers publishing such cases every day from all over the country, there have been many suggestions, apps, safety instructions for operators, commuters, etc. but at the end of the day, there is only so much that apps can do. The rising number of such cases tends to lead one to believe that cab rides may be unsafe. One should keep in mind that not all drivers are bad. They have been trained by the operators and verified…

A major railway station, a Metro station and a national highway (Peenya Road) are all located close to each other in the Yeshwanthpur suburbs. But these transport modes are not well-integrated, causing major hassles in using public transport here. 2.3 km from old railway station to Metro The map below shows the distance from the old entrance of the railway station (marked YPR (OLD)), where Platform 1 is located, to the Metro station. This roundabout stretch is about 2.3 km long. The distance from the new entrance (YPR (NEW)), where Platform 8 is located, to the Metro station is shorter.…

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made FASTag mandatory for all vehicles that currently pay toll, starting December 1, 2019. The nation-wide introduction of FASTag is part of the National Electronic Toll Collection Programme which aims to achieve cashless toll collection, fast movement of vehicles across toll plazas and reduction in congestion. The rollout of FASTags will be limited to National Highways  and select state highways in the initial stage with all state highways expected to follow suit by March 2020. What is FASTag and how will it work? FASTag is a rechargeable prepaid vehicle tag that is…

Last Friday, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao issued a notification barring private vehicles on the bus priority lane (BPL) in Outer Ring Road. The BPL - between Silk Board to KR Puram and then towards Baiyappanahalli - will benefit around a lakh Bengalureans commuting in over 800 buses everyday, says the BMTC. Authorities presume that the BPL will increase the speed and efficiency of BMTC buses, encouraging more people to use buses, and thereby will reduce traffic in the ORR. But there's been a major concern since the inception of the project - how can Bengaluru's unruly motorists be…

In the early hours of October 23rd, nearly a hundred trees and shrubs were mowed down at Kotturpuram Tree Park (KTP) - ostensibly a "mistake" by a misinformed earthmover operator, who could not have been working there without instructions from the Public Works Department (PWD).  Tree lovers in the city and beyond were horrified and heartbroken. We wrote an anguished piece on the state of trees in Chennai, many other publications also covered the "accident",  and even the Madras High Court took suo moto cognisance of the incident. Shaken by the hullabaloo, PWD officials quickly admitted to the mistake and assured…

Co-authored by C S Sharada Prasad and Isha Ray November 19 is World Toilet Day. India's massive five-year all-hands-on-deck Clean India Mission to construct latrines for all has just ended. The Government reports that 100 million additional toilets have been constructed via this campaign; these are mostly not connected to waterborne sewer systems. Just over 30% of India's urban population has access to sewers, though most city plans include elaborate plans for sewerage. Sewers are supposed to be underground and unseen, and are not supposed to need manual labour to dispose of the waste. But sewers get blocked and have…

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I looked at the strategic issues and practical issues respectively, in implementing the bus priority lane (BPL) project in Outer Ring Road. In this concluding part of the series, I discuss solutions to these problems: Ban slow-moving vehicles in ORR If a slow-moving vehicle is allowed on the general lanes of ORR, the entire traffic will slow down painfully. Hence BBMP must ban the entry of all slow-moving vehicles in the corridor. This includes hand-pushed carts, pedal-rickshaws and animal-driven vehicles. Do not allow BPL to cross the path of private vehicles…