Commute

In October 2015, I had written an article on the absence of asphalted roads in Akshayanagar Layout, off Bannerghatta Road.  In the past 2.5 months, much work has happened on the Hulimavu-Begur stretch. The stretch of road, which previously looked like this...  ...has been tarred as seen below here. The entire Hulimavu-Begur road stretch till DLF New Town has been repaired and asphalted. Having said this, the Yelenahalli Road continues to remain a nightmare. (This picture was taken in November 2015) Along with complaints and concerns, it is also essential to highlight the positive action taken by local administration. Hoping…

Pic: Mayur Channagere Over 2,000 people formed a sea of red, under the Ibblur Flyover this Friday noon. They braved the sun, dust and traffic taking time off work and chores to protest against poor quality roads, daily jams, and smog filled air. Residents of Sarjapur Road and ORR neighbourhoods were upset that though Bellandur ward is one of the highest tax paying wards in Bengaluru, the state of civic infrastructure is extremely poor. People were waving placards and shouting slogans demanding the government fix the problems.  Roads have not been properly laid in years, and there are no footpaths…

The adage says, "there's safety in numbers". But our Bangalore citizens seem to apply this out of context. Here's a photo I snapped on Sunday.  I wonder how many more people can ride on that two-wheeler, all without helmets....

Outer Ring Road traffic on a usual weekday. Picture Courtesy: Mayur Channagere   The ORR stretch from Ibblur to Marathahalli is home to Ecospace, Embassy Tech Village, Prestige Tech park and Cessna Business Park. In addition we have a world class hospital, scores of commercial buildings, offices and approximately 50,000 residential units (and still growing). Several lakh square feet of space, both residential and commercial, is under construction. The Sarjapur road, adjoining ORR, houses Wipro corporate office - currently 10,000 employees. A new Techpark sprawling on 65 acres is coming up in Carmelaram, near Decathlon Sarjapur road. Many more residential…

Which street in Bengaluru do you like the most? Does the street that you like the most have all the facilities that make it better than the rest? Well, the latest Street Quality Score by Janaagraha has come out with the top four and bottom four streets in Bengaluru which is the result of a survey conducted in the last three months. The survey has measured the quality of roads in Bengaluru based on five criteria namely, walkable footpaths, pedestrian crossing, street lighting, bus stops and air pollution. The report has picked up following four roads of being better off…

The Bengaluru City Police don’t have authority to regulate traffic, drunk driving and speed on this private toll road. As a result of unchecked speed and not following regulations, there are deadly accidents every year on this road. When asked to take action, the company asks the government to disapprove any kind of inspection from police, and removes speed limits set for the road. And we are talking about NICE road, built by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE). Citizen Matters had published an article Top 10 acciden-prone places in Bengaluru based on the data collected from Bangalore Traffic Police. Electronic…

Martin Luther King once said: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter".  Yesterday, Whitefield residents decided to break the silence by protesting against bad roads and infrastructure. A regular mundane Monday morning turned into a historical protest day, when over 8,000 people, mostly fed-up residents of the area, gathered in large crowds. Protesters dressed in black, holding placards. Pic: Deepa Ravi People got up early to attend the protest, leaving their daily chores, all united for a cause, a cause called #SaveWhitefield. People from different walks of life, across age-groups came together, and Bengaluru…

The Ramagondanahalli-Borewell Road in Whitefield stretches more than two kilometres connecting Varthur Road to Borewell Road. This area falls under Ward  84, Hagduru under Mahadevapura constituency. This has about a thousand residential dwellings mostly in the form of flats and villas. With quite a few of them being relatively new apartments, there are at least about 600 families who are staying here at present and this number is expected cross 1,000 in the next few months. This road also is home to a beautiful lake named Sheelavanthana kere. Giant potholes and non-functional street lights on the Ramagondanahalli-Borewell Road in Whitefield.…

Whitefield. I know the very mention of that name is starting to remind people about all the things that are going wrong in that part of town. In my recent visits to that side too, I have been surprised by the degree to which the city has collapsed over there, and wondering what can be done to retrieve the situation. Rather than continue the litany of complaints, I thought I would put together the things that can be done to tackle the problem, initially focusing on roads and transport. A beeline of vehicles waiting on Varthur Main Road, near Kundalahalli…

File pic. Pic: Kedar Nadella Over the last year several Indian cities have witnessed rapid growth of app-based, on-demand cab services such as Uber, Ola, TaxiForSure etc. These services have prompted debate among policy makers, users and other stakeholders on their efficacy, reliability, sustainability and impact on environment, and on black and yellow taxi/regular cabs/public transport. This can be seen in the recent launch of the City Taxi Scheme 2015.   EMBARQ India is conducting a detailed research study to understand the impact of such services. This research can guide regulators/government to frame policies for the sustainability of aggregator models…