silk board

Bengaluru's air quality crisis, unlike that in the cities of the north, is a silent one; most online ambient stations which provide information to the public paint a fairly clean picture of the city’s air, though most of its citizens feel otherwise. In an effort to understand the palpable pollution levels in the air we breathe, in comparison to the ambient data being generated by the KSPCB, Co Media Lab and Climate Trends carried out a 7-day air quality monitoring exercise with the help of a low-cost monitor used to measure personalised exposure levels. The activity was spread over a…

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…

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has started with its homework, in a bid to merge the elevated road from Jayadeva junction to Central Silk Board with Metro’s R V Road - Bommasandra line. The preliminary research and other procedures are underway. The flyover planned to be extended till Central Silk Board at a cost of Rs.150 crore has already been announced in the maiden budget of the Congress government. “The project is still in the preliminary stage. A feasibility report and DPR is yet to be formed, which needs to be assigned to a consultant,” says BBMP Executive Engineer,…

If there is one politician who is most qualified to present a Budget for Karnataka, it is the Chief Minister himself - Siddaramaiah. While he has shown his ability to do the fine balance with not antagonising the public with more taxes, he has played to the gallery as far as keeping multiple vote banks in good humour is concerned. What should the budget aim to do? What are the key measures that should have been dealt with differently in the budget? Creation of more jobs across agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors should be the fundamental objective for the moment.…

Every budget talks about how Bangalore is an important metropolis and how its glory as an IT-BT capital has to be restored. In keeping with the current sentiment, the budget has discussions about garbage, roads, sites and investments. However there is only so much a city can take; so much a city can absorb; a limit to which it can cope. So, the question with every budget is that why are we so Bangalore-centric? Unpack the current Karnataka budget and you have a section dedicated to Bangalore which details out fly-overs, sky-walks, grade separators and garbage management. There is an…

Connectivity to Bangalore will be improved in the coming years, with the government formally announcing the willingness to form Bangalore Suburban Rail Corporation, in the state budget, a few days after the proposal getting formal approval. This has cheered many groups who have been batting for the commuter railway for many years. Other major announcement was the decision to separate ground water wing from the Mines and Geology Department and form a Ground Water Directorate. This looks important in the background of the Right to Water bill proposed to be tabled in the Parliament. “We should not avail loans just…

The new Budget has been announced. For the first Budget with limited time, it is indeed a good one. Our Chief Minister  has said in the introduction that he intends to provide every citizen the bare necessities of life, a house, water in the tap, power, a road to the house, sewage facilities, education for children and safety for people and property. Ultimately this is what every citizen looks forward to and what we have not been able to achieve in the past 65 years. He has stated that he will ensure that taxpayers’ money is well-spent with no wastage,…