Commute

Step into the lush green campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, and students pedaling away on their bicycles is a common sight. The eco-friendly mode of commute within the precincts of the campus received a special boost when the management of IIT Madras initiated a pilot project on bicycle sharing in December 2017. “For the last 3-4 years, several General Secretaries of the student bodies and Hostel Affairs Secretaries had included ‘cycle-sharing’ in their manifestos but had not been able to implement it. During this term, the Committee for Monitoring General Facilities For Students (CMGFS) jointly took…

The Bengaluru In-charge Minister K J George launched the cycle stands and cycle sharing rental services in Sanjay Nagar on Saturday February 17, 2018. BBMP commissioner Manjunath Prasad, Corporators of wards 18 and 19, Anand and Indira Subhash and residents of Sanjaynagar were present in the event.       The Minister, Commissioner and the corporators took a ride in the cycle as a part of the launch. Minister K J George and the BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad spoke supportive of the initiative and encouraged people to take up such initiatives in other areas. The commissioner requested the residents to partner…

Last month, government bus drivers in Tamil Nadu struck work for over a week, throwing the cities’ commute scenario into chaos. The issue: long-standing demands over a wage hike. The bus drivers in the state have been demanding pay scales in compliance with the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations, approved by the central government in June 2016. Currently, in Chennai Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), the basic salary of permanent drivers starts from Rs 17,700. This is according to a settlement that the MTC reached with some trade unions on January 4th. However, major trade unions including the DMK-backed Labour…

The dream of having electric vehicles on the roads of Bengaluru came a bit closer to reality in the recent years. The city is slowly but surely moving towards electric vehicles. The recent push is the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) putting out a tender for private companies to add electric buses to the diesel fleet. Last date for submitting bids is February 19, 2018. BMTC to procure electric buses According to Ashwin Mahesh, an urbanist and social technologist, the production of electric vehicles is quite a challenge, and will take time to stabilise. As the design, strategising and building…

In the hope that online procedures in the Regional Transport Offices (RTO) had improved and gave the user a smooth experience,  I tried to file an application for the renewal of my driving licence online through the ‘Parivahan’ portal, a few days ago. I was unable to complete the process and I received a message asking me to contact the local RTO office. I went to the RTO Chennai (North) early on the morning of Jan 29th to file the manual application Form 9 along with Form 7 as well as Form 1a and a medical certificate, duly completed along…

Union Budget mentions Bengaluru Suburban Rail:  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in the Union Budget that Bengaluru suburban network could spring up at a cost of ₹17,000 crore. It had agreed to invest about 20% of the total expenses, with ₹1,745 crore in two years. State government will invest another 20%, and the rest needs to be funded through loans. The rail project will be partly elevated inside the core areas of the city. Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao agreed that the project can take off when both the State and the Centre contribute 20% of the cost.  They both…

Pavithra Sudhakar, a Hyderabad resident, used to spend about an hour travelling to her office daily. A senior software engineer in Wipro, she had to travel the 12 kms to office by cab or auto. Then, a year back, she started using the carpooling app sRide. “I tried it after getting emails from my company (sRide has a tie-up with Wipro). Since then I have been using carpooling to go to office and back, daily. My travel time is only 40 minutes now,” she says. For Pavithra, this time saving is the biggest advantage of carpooling. “The person driving the…

Last month, on Christmas morning, residents of Purva Sunshine apartment woke up to an absurd sight of a car tipped into the front storm water drain. Couple of years ago, children came out to board their school bus only to find a two-wheeler rider, a hit-and-run victim, breathing his last. Our security and maintenance staff have been mute witness to the accidents that happen on a weekly basis at least. Fast forward to the present, in less than a week, there have been three separate fatal/critical hit and run accidents in front of Purva Sunshine apartments on Sarjapura main road,…

The indefinite strike by workers of the transport department has completely derailed commute in Metropolitan Chennai, a city lauded for its integrated public transport module. Thousands of commuters are stranded and roads are gridlocked in the city, but it is impossible to miss the sense the anger among transport department workers who have been off the roads for four days now. They did not call off the strike, despite being warned of termination from service by the Madras High Court. What could have prompted them to this level of desperation? It’s time to take a deeper look. The minimum ticket fare…

From new year parties to short-lived hopes on metro trains to medical strike, it has been an eventful week! New Year pulls in with a peaceful bang:  This year’s New Year Eve stood out for its high-security leash on the celebrations. One man wanted to file an FIR against his wife's molestation and 60 were arrested for creating some ruckus. But no major bawdy, lewd or rowdy scenes marred the noise and pomp like last year. The city’s security teams seem to have pulled out all plugs to preempt bad news. A special 16,000-plus policeman squad, 3,000 home guards, 100…