Commute

Our ring roads have been functioning for quite a while. Why can't the service roads be made motorable too. A few places where it can be used is in a bad shape. I think our city fathers and authorities should ride these roads and see the inconvenience it causes to the public. The city buses are the terrorists of our city - why do the police not check them and book them for the offences which happen right in front of them. Are they scared of the bus drivers? Unless these public bus drivers follow the traffic rules, the chaos…

All footpath slabs uprooted. Sewage water over flowing on the road. Dozens of school children and IT employees have to wait beside this health and acident trap every morning. This is NH209! There is a tussle between the BBMP and the Highways department ever since the Kanakapura road has scaled up as NH209.My photograph of the problematic area was published in the Times of India on 18th December, 2008, followed by a mail to the chief minister, the commissioner of BBMP and the Director of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Delhi. If you would like to volunteer to…

This hole on Kammanhalli Main Road poses a threat to those who use this busy road. Nearby shopkeepers placed some stones, bricks and branches near the whole to help prevent any mishap. The next day some workers from the BBMP workers came and filled it up with heaps of mud and rocks, and it became a mountain on the road (as shown in the photo). This is how it has been for the past few days. Who can we contact for road repairs like this? Hole on Kammanahalli main road which has been covered by nearby shopkeepers using some stones…

"Footpath mel hogi ma." - (Go on the footpath, Madam). This was a policeman.Though I felt like retorting back, I kept quiet as I always try to avoid these uniformed men.Frankly, where are the footpaths? The first hurdle is to get on to the footpath which is at least one foot high in many parts. Once you get on them there are any number of hurdles. Thirty per cent of them are occupied by construction materials. Iron rods that almost tear your sari. Maunds and maunds of brick and mortar pieces which can make you trip and fall; sands and…

The BMTC is launching the Kendriyasarige, a bus service that will serve Bengaluru's central business district, and the Big 10 service that will be a direct route connecting 10 major roads in the city to the outer ring roads. The BMTC has adopted some of the suggestions given in the ABIDe report on transport and has taken the initiative to apply them even before the government asks them to do so. "The new launches are definitely going to benefit public transport system, thus, the earlier we do it the better it is," says P S Sandhu, Director, BMTC. He thinks…

The Agara and Iblur junction flyover project kick-started in October 2008 and is scheduled to be completed in a span of 18 months. The project includes three flyovers - two at Agara and one at Iblur. Dedicated bus lanes and grade level roads are also part of the project. BDA officials say that this project is to ease traffic between Iblur and Agara junctions, and also part of the BDA's dream project of making Outer Ring Road signal-free. The combined cost of the project is Rs. 93.94 crores. Construction drill material for the flyover seen at the Outer Ring Road.…

In the ongoing, sometimes fractious discussions between green organizations and bodies like the BBMP and BMRCL, our citizens could possibly have lost the core arguments on the two sides, both of which are certainly valid and appear to lead in opposite directions.It is, therefore, vital to state these views clearly and then find the middle ground. Each party needs to shift its stance from their earlier frozen positions and work out a protocol for future projects. There should be proper documentation of issues in each project and a modality to deal with the environmental impact, which is to the satisfaction…

Some like it mapped For Design Engineer Ashok Vasudevan, using a mobile phone to tell you which route to take is a nuisance. Ashok prefers using a map. Yes, how can one forget the good ol' map? How many of us have even used a map apart from our geography classes in school? Ashok says, "I'm crazy about maps. I use the Eicher map. It's easy to use as it first provides a complete map of Bangalore in two pages which is then divided into several numbered parts. These parts are then magnified in subsequent pages. It's a handy tool…

Traffic planning, road widening and mass tree felling is all the rage in Bangalore nowadays. City officials have paid scant respect to environmental activist groups who have protested the destruction of the inner city's green cover. There is good reason for this. Do you know that our city planners are extremely busy looking far ahead into the future and have some great plans in store? Here is a rundown of some stupendous new projects on the anvil and the benefits they will bring1. Improving passenger volumes on the Bangalore Metro:High passenger usage is a key to any major Metro project.…

"The city is getting beautiful," says the A K Gopalswamy, Engineer-in-Chief of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP). Amidst all the criticism, he believes that the on-going road widening drive, the newer malls under construction, new roads, Metro rail, and so on are part of this ‘beautification'.Granite slabs dug up on Seshadripuam Main Road (pic: Supriya Khandekar)The recently dug-up Seshadripuram Main Road in northwest Bengaluru is evidence of this. The granite footpath on this road has been removed by the BBMP as part of work to install a new concrete pavement. This road, like most of the lanes and roads…