whitefield

Lather flowing onto the road near Varthur lake. Pic: Murali Govindraju On Wednesday April 29th, Bengaluru made national headlines once again. The reason: rising pollution in Bengaluru’s lakes, a proof for which was the snow-white effervescence seen in Varthur lake. Despite it being a weekday, many young kids, working professionals and old residents of Whitefield-Varthur area turned up near Varthur lake where large volumes of white lather had risen from the lake. After the rains in Bengaluru over the last couple of days, many lakes have started carrying huge volumes of snowy froth. This froth which would have otherwise been…

Members of the Whitefield Rising group with the Namma Bengaluru award We gave no consent and we got awarded for that! You read that right. On March 14th, Whitefield Rising won the Namma Bengaluru Foundation award for disagreeing and sometimes being disagreeable! Strange, isn’t it? Read on to find out why. We all agree that the state of affairs around us is, putting it mildly, not good. Child rape, sewage in the lakes, garbage on the streets, inequality in our society and many more civic and humanitarian issues. As Ela Bhatt says, this is 'violence to our own with the consent of state and…

Come February 22nd, the Whitefield community will come together to celebrate green living at the 9th edition of the Green Bazaar in Bengaluru. Called ‘Eco Habba’, the event will be a commemoration of all that is ‘green’ about Whitefield. Date: February 22nd Time: 7 am to 7 pm Venue: Herbs & Spices Restaurant, Opp. Vijaya Bank, Whitefield Click here for event details. A press note from The Alternative says water warriors, kitchen gardeners, voluntary traffic wardens, tree huggers, compost conquerors, spot-fixers, lake-savers - all these local heroes will get together to inspire those people who are looking to be inspired. Considering the many…

In my earlier article dated August 19th, I had advocated the creation of a halt station on existing railway tracks, i.e. optimal use of resources, in turn saving our tax money. I would like to applaud Whitefield Rising for taking up this initiative and raising funds for the halt station. I was earlier requested to do a preliminary analysis by visiting sites at these locations, analyse feasibility and share my insights.  We should certainly go ahead with setting up halt stations between the junctions from Byappanhalli to IOL, Soukhya Spa (i.e. KIADB Phase II where there are warehouses). Often we just…

Whitefield hits jackpot this Bus Day A new day will dawn in Whitefield on Monday, January 12th, 2015. It is likely to go down in history as a red letter day when it comes to mobility in Whitefield area. BMTC has offered Whitefield these gifts: Intra Whitefield Mini buses are being introduced reducing the need to take personal vehicles. Improved connectivity to other parts of Bangalore from Whitefield Wait, there is more. Click here to get complete details on any question you might have. Especially if you are new to using buses in the area. This has come about after…

WR Open House. Come see what this is all about! A year and a half of existence. Over 40 projects initiated. 4500 Facebook members. Over 100 active doers. Increasing visibility for Whitefield. Good engagement with Government. Brookefield, Hoodi and ECC Rising are emerging. Postive changes happening, slowly but surely. Come join and instantly be a part of the change. There are no fees, no mandates, no organization structure. Its not an NGO, a trust or a club. Its just like minded residents that have had enough of the status quo and want to make a difference. Come, engage and empower…

Bengaluru’s industrial and IT hub Whitefield is always jam-packed these days, with inordinate delays for people on road. Looks like this will change for better, as citizens are working with the government to evolve a sustainable traffic plan that will help ease the traffic problems. This is important, as Metro construction work will start soon in Whitefield and some areas will suffer from traffic. The new plan for Whitefield designed and implemented by Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) aims to decongest the traffic pain-points in Whitefield area. Monday saw the implementation of the new plan. However, the roads remained congested on…

This is the beeline of vehicles on Varthur Main Road near Kundalahalli Gate. Trains have the capacity to take some part of this traffic off the road. Pic: Shree D N Vaidyanathan Narayanan works in a company in Whitefield. He takes the 9.05 am Namma Metro service from Ulsoor and reaches Byappanahalli Metro station at 9.14 am. Then he quickly moves towards the Baiyappanahalli Railway Station via the newly built footbridge, and reaches the station at 9.17 am. He waits for the Arakkonam train that comes in between 9.20 am to 9.30 am. He reaches the informal train stop behind…

In Part I, I explained the history of property-related confusion in Whitefield area in Bengaluru, and why Khata confusions arise. Here are some more questions answered on Khata: What is Khata? The term ‘Khata’ literally means an account. This term has a long history. Kingdoms levied land revenue on citizens to raise the bulk of their resources. For this purpose, they developed systems for measuring of land and appointed collectors to estimate and collect the taxes. Each land owner was assigned a ‘Khata’ in the records of the tax collectors, in which details of the estimated tax payable and the…

Graphite India, present in Whitefield, processes graphite daily in huge quantities which releases a large amount of fine graphite soot into the atmosphere. This is fine enough for it to not be very visible, yet is breathed by, not just the Graphite India employees, but, all the daily commuters, residents and businesses around the vicinity of Graphite India. And with ITPL and other business parks in the area, daily commuters are ever increasing (with the current numbers close to almost 1.2 Lakhs per day using the road in front of Graphite India). All these citizens are exposed to this soot.…