OPINION

Much has been written, in social media circles, against the expensive, potentially ugly steel bridge that is going to come at a cost of Rs 1800 Cr (estimated) to the public exchequer of the state of Karnataka. There are additional costs of course, trees, precious, full grown trees that have to be chopped off. Aesthetics. A steel structure... don’t get me wrong, I am an engineer, I love steel...is going to snake through town from Chalukya circle to Hebbal flyover. Beautiful heritage buildings and land. Compelling arguments have been made by many people along these lines, and they are right.…

Newspapers announced with glee and celebrated the news that the Metro construction between Silk Board and KR Puram was going to go ahead and will be “fast tracked”. On Twitter, corporate honchos part of the Bengalulru Blueprint Group, congratulated the government for taking the decision. Source: https://twitter.com/kiranshaw/status/776241398622228480 But it was with a fair degree of alarm and shock that the already harassed lot that commutes to the Outer Ring Road read the news. According to this news, Metro Phase 2 construction in this region would now be from Byappanahalli till KR Puram (that line will continue towards Whitefield). Then from KR…

What should Bengaluru - institutions and its citizens - do in the immediate run and the long run, considering the Cauvery dispute and the limits to water scenario? Just remember that only a third among us, or maybe half, are in the Cauvery basin, the rest are not part of the Water Tribunal process. This city has been built on a ridge and in the basin of two rivers, though many of us may not even be able to name the rivers into which Bengaluru empties its sewage. Consider this – we are pumping 1400 million litres of water per…

Water shortage has been a matter of serious concern in Bengaluru.  While the city contributes about 50% of the state’s GDP, this problem, if not corrected timely, could seriously threaten the revenues of the state government and the IT/BT investment that the city has been able to attract.  The population of Bengaluru is also increasing substantially. As against a population of 85 lakhs in 2011, it is expected to be around 188 lakhs by 2030, which will further exacerbate the city’s water supply woes. What’s the scenario in Bengaluru?  The piped water supplied by the Bangalore Water Supply & Sewage…

Bengaluru represents the future of many urban challenges and opportunities. The city is experiencing rapid economic growth, great inequality between rich and poor, and a limited capacity to secure an ecological support for the resource needs of the growing population. With these challenges in mind, I have focused my doctoral research on the question: What is the role of the residents in such a city? A well-known and defining challenge for Bangalore concerns water, both in terms of a drinkable supply and in safely disposing of the sewage produced. In a recent scientific paper published in Sustainability Science, “Against the…

When an overhead walkway built by Ecospace was recently opened to public, residents of Outer Ring Road greeted it with joy. It made crossing the ORR so much safer and seemed to reduce congestion caused by vehicles slowing to let jaywalkers cross. Though India had a strong tradition of pedestrian-centric cities, it is deplorable that post-1970, cities in India have rarely been designed for pedestrians. Reviewing the list of ten most accident-prone areas in Bangalore, Citizen Matters found that the predominant factor for accidents was pedestrians crossing the road in the midst of high speed traffic. With the absence of…

Nowadays we see a lot of of news about demolitions. The government assures us that this will continue, and that even big builders won't be spared. There is a school of thought which holds that either the BBMP or the State Government should pay compensation to the victims of these demolitions, because its officers failed to do their duty. As a long-time resident of Bellandur village, I start wondering: Back in 2005, Bellandur was considered a model village, and we were free birds. As soon as the BBMP absorbed us to become a city of 9.6 million we inherited its crippling debt of…

Google Earth image from 2000 that shows a realistic view of elevation and valley in Kodichikkanahalli area. Recent actions by the government to clear the drainage encroachments in the IT city have proved to be a tough incident both for the administration and to the individuals. Though people getting their plans approved or Khata documents can be attributed to the dark side of the administration as well as of the individual dweller, there are certain genuine innocent cases that are heart-breaking. In the city considered to be IT capital of the country, where a normal cab driver reaches a completely…

Yelahanka railway station. Pic: Sanjeev Dyamannavar During the now-concluded BMTC and KSRTC staff protest in Bengaluru and Karnataka, the South Western Railway came to the rescue of Railway passengers by providing stoppages for All Mail / Express Trains at Baiyyappanhalli,  Nayandahallai, Kengeri, Whitefield, Channasandra, Carmelaram in both directions. This basically helped railway commuters to get down or take trains at areas close to their residences of offices instead of struggling to reach Majestic or Yashwanthpur by private or hired vehicles, in the absence of BMTC buses. This goodwill gesture by the South Western Railway in such a short notice has…

This video captures a common everyday scene which every Bengalurean is now accustomed to seeing - the sight of broken pushcarts overflowing with household waste being pushed with difficulty, the sight of huge mounds of rotting garbage lying on the ground. The heartrending sight of workers bending over ankle-deep in rotten stinky waste and laboriously filling up a large compactor vehicle with small shovels and baskets manually, while the compactor system is meant to be filled up by a mechanical operation, directly from tippers to compactors. This is the pitiable state of our waste workers functioning in a broken system…