Weekly News Roundup

BBMP to take over all city lakes except three  All lakes in the city except Bellandur, Varthur, and Veerasandra will be handed over to the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), according to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who is also the Bengaluru Development Minister. Also, 628 acre of lake land that has been encroached, would be cleared. Bellandur and Varthur lakes are under the BDA (Bangalore Development Authority), and Veerasandra lake is with the BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd). Currently, 169 out of 200 lakes in Bengaluru are under the BBMP. It will now take over 38 more lakes.…

Rains don't fill up "rejuvenated" lakes Though BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) has restored as many as 75 out of the 150 lakes under its purview, most of these remain dry in spite of heavy rains. BBMP officials admitted that lakes cannot depend solely on rainwater. Sewage inflow coupled with the absence of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the rejuvenated lakes, garbage dumping in the lake bed etc have led to further deterioration of lakes. BBMP officials said that lack of coordination among government agencies and paucity of funds also hampered rejuvenation efforts. Most rejuvenated lakes are now dry except…

Over 800 'NimBus'es to ply on priority lane ‘NimBus’ or Nimma Bus is the new brand name the BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) has conferred on buses that would operate in the priority lane on Outer Ring Road. These buses will ply between Silk Board and Baiyappanahalli. ‘Commute better’ would be the tagline of the buses. Complete operations of the NimBus fleet would start on November 1. A BMTC official said that ORR buses will have NimBus stickers for the benefit of passengers. The stickers will be sported by 830 buses, majority of them the 500 series buses. The Corporation…

BBMP to set up C&D waste processing unit in Kannur BBMP announced it would sign an agreement with the private company Rock Crystal in a couple of days, to set up a construction and demolition (C&D) waste processing unit in Kannur. BBMP's announcement comes after the High Court ordered it to find solutions for solid waste management in two months. The court had threatened to stop new constructions in the city if it didn't. The agreement for the processing plant has been pending since May. The BBMP had written to the Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore Urban, in May, when the agreement was…

Heavy rains breach lake, flood homes in north Bengaluru Heavy rains breached the corner bund of Doddabidarakallu lake, leading to overflow and inundation of about 500 houses, early on Thursday morning. Residents of Bhavani Nagar, Annapurneshwari Layout, Anandappa Layout and Muneshwara Layout were horrified as water levels rose up to almost six feet. Power cuts worsened the situation, leaving residents groping in the dark for their belongings. The lake bund was breached at about 2 am, as it received a huge volume of water from a stormwater drain (SWD) upstream. Police came to the spot at about 3 am with…

Govt considers zonal committees in B'luru State government is considering promoting zonal meetings at BBMP, to further decentralise the powers of BBMP Commissioner. The zonal committee will involve special commissioners, engineer-in-chief, ward officials, officials from all civic agencies, MLAs, nominated representatives from citizen groups, and ward committee members of the respective zones. As per a draft brought out by the government, the committee should clear proposals and works in the zone, before these are sent to the BBMP Council for approval. The draft also recommends including the committees in finalising the zonal budget for 2020. As per a recent government…

BBMP action plan to restore 630 km of roads BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) Commissioner B H Anil Kumar tweeted that the civic body has drawn up an action plan to restore 630 km out of 3000 km roads in the city once the BWSSB finishes laying drinking water and underground drainage (UGD) pipelines. Citizens had expressed dismay over the condition of their roads, especially in the five outer zones -Bommanahalli, Dasarahalli, Mahadevapura, Rajarajeshwarinagar and Yelahanka. BWSSB has taken up works in the 110 villages that fall in these zones, and heavy rains worsened road conditions here. Action will be…

BBMP Commissioner proposes zonal budgets BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar has suggested that the Palike can have separate budgets for each of its eight zones. Zonal budgets would help in decentralising powers, in release of funds and sanction of job codes, he said at the BBMP Council meeting last Wednesday. Kumar's proposal followed the chief minister’s recent decision to have BBMP's four Special/Additional Commissioners oversee two zones each. In zonal matters, these officials would have the same powers as the commissioner. The discussion on decentralisation began in the Council when corporators across party lines complained that files on emergency…

BBMP ups security deposit for road cutting  Roads that are dug up by various agencies are often restored poorly, due to the lack of coordination between agencies. To address this issue, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is increasing the security deposit that agencies - including private telecoms and internet service providers - have to pay when they take permission for road cutting. The security deposit should be enhanced to 100 percent of the road restoration cost, as per a circular issued by the BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar to the Palike's chief engineers. So far, the civic body…

BBMP will fill potholes, but not count them The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is going to stop counting potholes, calling it an unscientific practice. M R Venkatesh, BBMP Engineer-in-chief, said that the civic body has asked engineers to fix potholes wherever they are found, without counting them. “We’ve stopped counting potholes because we’ve decided to make the city roads pothole-free,” he said. By July 18th, BBMP had listed 5630 potholes, and had filled about 2790. The remaining 2840 holes are yet to be filled. BBMP has decided to not set deadlines to fill potholes; instead, officials have been instructed…