Commute

KSNDMC warns of possible flooding in September Bengalureans felt the ripple effect of floods in Kodagu District (where a rainfall of 768mm left villages ravaged) on August 24, when the city received 43 mm of rainfall till 9 pm. Areas such as Malleswaram, Rajajinagar, Hebbal, Sadashivanagar, Kengeri, Adugodi and Mysore road received very heavy rainfall. Once the rain started, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) issued warnings by dispatching messages through their mobile application to certain key areas. The centre has forecast heavy rain in the immediate future, and has intimated the same to BBMP. Scientists warn that 80 mm…

Dear Chief Minister of Karnataka, With great urgency, in your very first budget, you have announced an undebated ‘Elevated Corridor’ project that has not had public consultation, and followed no due process. Another project is an untested technology called ‘Pod Taxi’, again not following any due process or transparency! These are listed neither in the master plan for Bengaluru, nor in any integrated mobility plan for the city. These will impact the 1.2 crore residents of the city in many ways. The Elevated Corridors project will cost the exchequer Rs. 34,000 crores, 151 acres of land, and almost 4000 trees.…

B'luru ranked in 58th position on livability index Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri released the 'Ease of Living Index–2018’ on August 13th. Bengaluru was ranked in 58th place in the overall list, among 111 Indian cities surveyed, based on aggregated scores in four categories: institutional governance, social, economic and physical infrastructure. To ensure accurate reflection of the ease of living in Indian cities through this ranking, marks were awarded against 78 indicators in 15 sub-categories. Barring the category of open spaces, in which the former garden city fared reasonably well in 16th place, Bengaluru was at the bottom of the list…

I got this useful post , i am reproducing it here with the grammatical errors rectified. ******************* Have you applied for your driving license (DL), but don’t know the status? Waiting to get a copy of you DL can be a time consuming process. Instead of waiting for the DL to arrive by post, you can visit the respective Regional Transport Office(RTO) with your token number to check your driving license status. You can also go online to the Sarathi website of the MInistry of Road Transport and Highways. How to Make a Driving License Status Enquiry *Please visit the official website…

It is a pretty linear argument as far traffic solutions go. The big bad car versus pedestrians and cyclists. Non-motorized transport (NMT) versus motorised private transport. If we want to get out of this nightmare we call traffic jams and decongest the city, we need to get people out of their private vehicles and have them take to mass transit and non-motorised transport options i.e. walking and cycling, in a big way. Sounds pretty simple in theory, and this is expected to be the linchpin that will not only decide the which way urban mobility is headed, but also decide the survival…

Widening of Sarjapur Road was put on hold because of the delay in land acquisition, and people refusing to take Transferable Development Rights (TDR) as an alternative to money for their land. The problem here lies in the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Benefits of Development Rights) Rules, 2016. TDR or Transfer of Development rights is a big non-starter in Municipalities like Bengaluru, given the loopholes. First of all, TDR providing 2X compensation in FAR won’t solve the problem as people holding rights are not able to get fair value or even sell it due to lack of demand. Real…

Bengaluru is a city which has far oustripped its original population for which it was designed. From a population of approximately 15 lakhs in the 1970s, to an estimated 110 lakhs today (source: Draft Revised Master Plan 2018), the city’s population has burgeoned beyond limits, and stands at the cusp of further explosive growth to 210 lakh plus by 2031 (the end year of RMP 2031). Transport planning for such a huge population is very important, and cannot depend on piecemeal solutions. That’s where elevated corridors come into picture. Modal shares and extrapolation Many conflicting numbers are being passed around…

It has been two years since the Metro was launched between Mysore Road and Byappanahalli. Since the day it opened, it has been my main transport to get to work. So much so that I can’t think of any other way of commuting to work! The issue since then has always been the last mile, the last 6kms from the station to the office. I decided to go with BMTC and the results have been mixed. On mornings, it would take anywhere between 20 mins and 45 mins for that distance, not considering traffic. Evenings, it took anywhere from 25…

Varthur lake, the second-largest lake in Bengaluru has been an unfortunate victim of unplanned urbanisation and industrialisation. With the growing population and the inflow of commuters to Whitefield and Sarjapur on a daily basis, the infrastructure of the roads circumventing the lake, specifically the Varthur bridge and the Varthur-Gunjur stretch, are unable to handle the congestion. This has pushed local residents to demand the widening of the road. While the BBMP had sanctioned the work on repairing the bridge, work has come to a halt due to protests by surrounding landowners who are afraid of losing their land. The road-widening…

Kasavanahalli Development Forum(KDF) hosted a meeting of many Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and forums that represent more than 10,000+ citizens across Bellandur and passed a 'Bellandur Development Resolution 2018' to address the critical infrastructure issues in the ward. In Bellandur, the IT hub/SEZ ORR zone alone contributes to ~12% of IT Services GDP for the country, and 30% of Karnataka’s IT Revenues. In addition, Bellandur is one of the highest contributors of tax to BBMP with no proportional investment coming back in infrastructure. Citizens' right to life is being challenged, with no basic amenities of water, drainage, road infrastructure, public…