Commute

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or High Capacity Bus System (HCBS) is a high quality, ultra modern, customer oriented transit option that could deliver fast, comfortable and cost-effective urban mobility, quite similar to metro rail. Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) incorporates most of the high-quality aspects of metro systems without high investments. BRT was developed as a viable transit option in Latin America, where urban planners were seeking cost effective solution for the urban transport dilemma. This highly effective and economical mass transit option is now a way of life in many developing as well as developed countries such as China,…

Confusion continues to loom over the status of road widening projects in Bengaluru. Recent media reports suggested that all road widening projects in the city were put on hold, after a statement made by Transport Minister R Ashoka. The Minister later backtracked saying that work on only the Mysore Road-Central Silk Board corridor will be stalled. One of the markings on the Silk Board-BTM Layout corridor, indicating proposed acquisition of 7.41 m. File pic. Citizen Matters reconfirmed this with Ashoka who says, “I don't know how many road widening projects have been stopped. I don't have exact number. In JP…

A few of us from the cycling community (specifically, from the Rideacycle Foundation, and from the Bangalore Bikers' Club), were able to meet Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan,  who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, the apex to a career of achievements and awards, at the campus of the Indian Institute of Science on January 6th. Bangalore cycling enthusiasts with Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. (L to R) Shankar, Mayank Rungta, Mohan, Murali H R, Pradeep B V, Dr. Venki, Arun. Pic: Deepa Mohan. For me, it was a refreshing change to talk to a famous personality not about his work, but…

When I went to the IISc (Indian Institute of Science) campus, I was meeting a couple of cyclists there, so, while walking with me, Pradeep B V pointed out a red-and-yellow cycle that was sailing past us."That's the initiative of the IISc campus, one which our cycling community particularly likes," he said. He explained that every year, outgoing students dump the cycles that they use while here...and the present students had the great idea of painting them yellow-and-red, and allowing anyone to use them on the campus!If you see a red-and-yellow cycle anywhere in the IISc grounds, you can use…

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".....⊕