Commute

Karishma Jain, a law student at the Hosur Road-based Christ College travels by bus from her Sarjapur Road residence every day. Since Karishma does not know the local language, she says she initially found it very difficult to travel by bus as the destination boards were in Kannada. “I don't know Kannada. But now I know the numbers and the bus routes”, she says, even as she just gets off a wrong bus, thinking it was going towards Agara through Sarjapur Road.Karishma is among the 40 lakh passengers of Bengaluru who use the BMTC bus services every day. The BMTC…

During commute time in Bangalore when people are traveling to their offices, how many people do you see:1.    In a car?2.    On a motor bike?3.    In a bus?Answer : 1 in a car, 1 on a bike, 75 in a bus.Here’s a small transportation engineering exercise.If you count the number of vehicles on the flyover in the picture below, you’ll find that they add up to 150. Assuming the people in these vehicles are all going to or from work, each of the vehicles is carrying 1 person.That means there are 150 people between the two red lines. Pic source:…

Arjun Tallam, in his forties, managing partner at Rasilaas Fine Dine restaurant in JP Nagar VII phase, Kotnoor Dinne main road says that three years ago when he opened the restaurant there wasn’t a proper road. Residents and traders of the area approached MLA Vijaykumar (Jayanagar, JP Nagar constituency) and got a road laid in 2007. Excited, he describes how the footfalls and profits grew once the road was done. Arjun Tallam, of Rasilaas Fine Dine restaurant in JP Nagar VII phase. Pic: Supriya Khandekar But his excitement dies down soon when he talks about the underpass construction that started…

BBMP wants to take land from the owners along the 100 feet ring road (BTM Layout and JP Nagar) for road widening. They say they are doing this "for the benefit of the larger population". Now compare this with Bangalore Metro train project. The government setup a committee  called "Thomas Committee" which analysed the socio-economic impact and set the guidelines for deciding the compensation package for each of the affected land owners and business establishments. The report can be seen at the following link here. Now the Metro is also being built in the same place and the irony is…

Citizens in JP Nagar and BTM Layout have been rankled recently when red colour signs showed up on compound walls and entrances of homes and shops. The signs indicated that 7-8 metres of their property is going to acquired for yet another roadwidening project.Last month, the BBMP decided it was going to widen the 14.5 kms-stretch from Silkboard (Hosur Road) through BTM Layout and JP Nagar to Mysore Road.Do not miss our exclusive story for more on this and what citizens and shopkeepers are doing to protect their interests. What will happen over the next few months is unclear, but…

It is more than a year but things don’t seem to improve for the residents of JP Nagar. Recently a number of houses on the 15th Cross (100 feet road) in JP Nagar got fresh red colour markings notifying a land acquisition by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike. In July last year, houses in the 15th Cross/24th main intersection area got marked similarly and the BBMP engineers said 5-7 feet of their property would be taken to widen the road which necessary for the underpass. As many as 44 residents were worried about loosing space on their properties. Later, the…

Just a few days ago, I was very happy to see that BMTC had introduced Yelli Iddira. "Yelli Iddira?" is a service provided by CL Infotech Pvt Ltd to BMTC commuters to track buses (presently only VOLVO) using on-line GPS data provided by BMTC .How to use:Supposing you are in Koramangala, and wish to go to Electronics City. The VOLVO bus route no V356C, connecting Kempe Gowda Bus Station and Electronic City (refer ‘route info' above), touches Koramangala at Big Bazaar, St John's hospital, Water tank Jn, Kripanidhi College, Madivala PS.To know the current location of the buses along the…

I received this announcement just now:Bangalore International Airport is delighted to announce its first Hasiru Habba.The objective of the Hasiru Habba is to create awareness to the community on environmental harms and to provide a simple message in effective way to every individual to make a positive change.Bangalore International Airport is conscious about your organization and the work that your organization is engaged towards environment. Bangalore International Airport would like invite your organization to be a part of this first ever Hasiru Habba to be held at Aiprort commencing from 15th August 2009 to 17th August 2009. Kindly accept this…

The BDA is in the process of building two flyovers on the Outer Ring road near the Iblur and Agara junctions in south-east Bengaluru as part of their 'signal free' Outer Ring Road project.  This article presents some questions, comments and suggestions regarding both the grade separators, on the basis of the project plans obtained from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in response to an RTI request by Citizen Matters. The flyovers have been described in an earlier article in Citizen Matters.  Two dedicated, access controlled, 11.5 feet wide bus lanes on either side of the central median of the…

Z A Khan, an engineer living in a Cantonment neighbourhood, does not travel by bus, car or two-wheeler to his office in Electronic City. He takes the Salem Passenger. “I take the train from Bangalore East at about 7:42 AM and get off at Heelalige (close to Chandapura) which is about 7 km from Electronic city. My company van picks me up at the station,” he says. Khan catches the same train back home in the evening at about 5:30 PM. “This is a much more convenient way to travel compared to enduring the ride through the city and traffic…