Commute

The traffic diversions from Sarajapur Road into HSR Layout, due to construction of flyover at Agara circle, have seriously inconvenienced the residents and shopkeepers of HSR layout.All main and some cross roads have been used mercilessly by all types of vehicles. Just a few months back some of these main roads were repaired and resurfaced. Due to poor quality of work (not supervised) and the last monsoons, roads have cracked and potholes have developed. This has been aggravated by heavy traffic on the main roads in this layout during these three to four months.There appears to be no controls in…

For years now, Bangaloreans have gotten accustomed to seeing dug up roads across the city. Furthermore, one doesn’t know who has dug it up or why and when it is likely to be closed. And then traffic suffers. The traffic police are clueless about the roadwork and are then forced to divert traffic."Sometimes we don't even know who has dug up the road", points out Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).  Nothing new in namma Bengaluru. Coordination, or the lack of it has always been a challenge for many local authorities - BBMP, BTP, BWSSB, BDA, BMTC, and so…

At a testy hearing in the High Court of Karnataka, the University of Agricultural Sciences reversed its position on the BBMP's link road through its GKVK campus in north Bengaluru. Before a two-judge bench on December 16th, the university's counsel Nithin Ramesh said the Vice-Chancellor, P G Chengappa, was willing to convene a fresh meeting of the Board of Regents to strike down its earlier approval for the link road, and added that the board's earlier decision was taken under ‘duress'. As BBMP claims 70 per cent of the work is completed the High Court orders an expert committee be…

This is my response to Citizen Matters' article on 'Junctions where grade separators are to come up'. The thought of having the prolonged construction of yet another set of grade separators foisted on us is really scary. As everyone knows, the underpass on 24th Main, 15th Cross, J P Nagar is way behind schedule as was the case with Jayadeva circle flyover. When the Jayadeva flyover construction was going on between the years 2003-06, traffic was diverted through Bilekahalli Dollar Layout adjacent to Bannerghatta Road, where I live, for years on end.The decision to divert traffic through our layout, was…

During the second half this year – July-October in particular - as well during the previous two years, BBMP notified various roads in Bengaluru and outskirts for widening. BBMP’s notifications have appeared in Kannada and English dailies.The widening is being under BBMP’s transfer of development rights (TDR) scheme. If you are slated to loose property on the road because of widening, you are entitled to 1.5 times the square footage lost through a development rights certificate (DRC), which the BBMP says it will issue. For more on this, see our articles BBMP’s TDR scheme has few takers, many left clueless,…

Indian personaliites like to become celebrities. One way of achieving this is to put up cutouts of their photographs in sizes large enough to stop passing clouds....Mr Kheny can be proud of the fact that he's now permanently overseeing the road that he built.....I'd like to know who the other two faces are....couldn't read the names as we went past. Are they the ones mentioned below Mr Kheny's name?If this had been Tamil Nadu, the name would have been followed by some laudatory phrase such as " our honoured builder of roads".....⊕

As soon as I read that Bangalore was hosting the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation's (IWAS) biennial event, I decided that I would definitely see these remarkable people whom I have viewed a bit on the telly. Although I attended only the colourful and slightly chaotic opening ceremony and also witnessed some of the confusion prevalent among the organizers, I felt enriched and elated! When I asked Mr. David Premnath, the event's Technical Director about the motivation behind bringing the games to India he promptly replied, "We wanted to create awareness about these games, here." However, despite the occasion's specialty,…

Driving from Bangalore to Chennai, or the other way, gives us the option of driving on roads of two different kinds....one is the old type of road. (Yes, it is now called the Old Madras Road...the "old" referring to the road, not to the city!)Perhaps not always in immaculate condition (though in Tamil Nadu, they mostly are, now...tremendous improvement.)Somewhat narrow. But so picturesque, with gnarled old tamarind and banyan trees lining the sides, with fields and villages all around...I am in my air-conditioned bubble no doubt, but I am in the heart of India....And the other kind, which is really…

The BBMP’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has approved grade separator projects and road widening across the 12 arterial corridors in Bengaluru. This is part of making these corridors signal-free. Earlier, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and TAC member Praveen Sood had told Citizen Matters that 80 junctions in the 12 arterial corridors have been approved by TAC for grade separator projects. This was also confirmed by H Raja Simha, another TAC member and Technical Advisor to the BBMP Commissioner, and T N Chikkarayappa, BBMP’s Chief Engineer (Major Roads).BBMP has released to Citizen Matters the names of 60 of these junctions…

It isn’t everyday that a state’s draft transport policy is discussed in humour. Well, but that is exactly what happened at ‘Mobilicity – an unconference on sustainable transport’ on November 21st at the Indian Institute of Science. Organised by online community Praja.in and Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), the event was held to discuss issues on sustainable mobility for Bengaluru. (From left) Gaurav Gupta, Shankarlinge Gowda, Krishna Byregowda, Praveen Sood. Byataranapura MLA Krishna Byregowda says, "People ask me about BPL cards, drains and street lights. Nobody asks me about transport". The unconference, a participant-driven discussion with…