Commute

After getting her car stuck in dug-up areas of Bangalore roads, my friend KV yielded the wheel of her car to me. We were going to visit the Gavi Gangadeshwara Temple in Basavanagudi. What happened as we turned the last blind corner to the temple felt like a sheer accident at the time, but in hindsight, appears to be a deliberately designed racket. An auto driver came too close to me and hit the right-hand-side wing mirror. I was irritated at his driving, but since we were four ladies (my friend K V, her mother, her aunt, another friend, J…

Election is nearing; the pressure on the governments to expedite works is increasing. The promises made by the Chief Minister in budget have started to turn into reality. Slowly and steadily, BBMP is working towards asphalting and improving roads. Although Chief Minister had promised to concretise more than 200 main roads of the city, in an event in October, the reality is, only two or three roads may get concretised. District incharge Ramalinga Reddy said, “Concretising road will not be possible this year. We will do that next year. At present we are working on asphalting roads, which was neglected…

Any old Bangalorean would be surprised to see the way Whitefield has grown beyond imagination. However, the infrastructure in the area hasn't seen so much improvement. If you thought nobody bothers about this, you are wrong. Whitefield residents want to make a difference by asking the government agencies about what they want. They have already requested a stop for more trains that pass Whitefield railway station. Bruhat Whitefield Residential Community Association (BWRCA) members have submitted a memorandum to the Railway Divisional manager, in this regard. P S Narayanan, the Vice-president of Nitesh Forest Hills Apartment Owners Welfare Association, took the…

I remember arriving in India for the first time, into New Delhi almost 10 years ago. I would liken it to a bull calf walking into the ring for the first time. A million things hit you; heat, light, shouts, screams, arms, signs, men, women, men, more men, a million people telling what you want and what you need, a million people trying to sell you food and get you into their cab or their friend’s cab, or their uncle’s cab, or their friend’s uncle’s cab. Arriving in Bengaluru was nothing like that. If my first arrival in India was…

The BMTC has been the city’s lifeline for many years carrying about 40- 45% of its commuters. With a fleet of over 6000 buses, the corporation can claim to have a significant presence in comparison to other city bus providers. The BMTC is also a monopoly in the sense that private bus companies are not allowed to ferry passengers on a mass transit basis. Significantly, one of the strongest points of BMTC has been that it has largely been a profit-making body since its inception in the late 90s (when it was created out of the then BTS which was…

Recently, there was an article in Citizen Matters by Ganga Madappa pointing to the fact the BMTC fares are higher than the distance indicates. I have been having a problem with this for some time now and given this opportunity, would like the share some information. As I understand it, BMTC buses are considered to be 'Stage Carriages' and their fares are governed by notifications put out by the government under the act. The latest notification that I could find dated 03-11-2010 on Maximum Fares for Stage Carriages in the State of Karnataka can be seen here: http://rto.kar.nic.in/Maxi%20rate%20for%20SC.pdf The notification…

Harish Bhat writes:   I travel to Silk Board almost every other day via Bus and then take an auto to Koramangala. There are at least 4-5 autos parked below the flyover almost all the time. And, I've to haggle with 2 of them (they ask for INR 40-50 for an INR 30 fare distance), before one good guy decides to charge meter fare.   But today was not most of those days. Today, at 1:20 PM I decided to do something about it. There were 7 of them and I went ahead and asked each of them. 4 of them…

It’s 7 pm on a Friday evening in Bengaluru; you have just visited a friend. You want to go back. Your family vehicle is unavailable, you do not want to commute by bus and the cab company you have called says they are booked till 10:30 pm. Your friend agrees to drop you off to the auto stand, but the drivers refuse to come or ask you to pay more. What can you do? It’s no state secret that most folks who commute by auto are skeptical of auto drivers. Of course, there are a good number of honest ones.…

A bus commuter, Vamshi Krishna, posted a discussion on the Citizen Matters forum. He stated that he was issued a  ticket for Rs.70 on the Volvo from Kundalahalli Gate to Majestic bus station in Bengaluru, and the distance printed on the ticket was 24 km. On 4 December, he boarded the bus, armed with a GPS device in hand and measured the distance. The GPS device however showed the distance covered as 17.4 km. Citizen Matters decided to get to the crux of the matter and find out what the problem was. Was the BMTC doing something they shouldn’t? Was…

  The death of a toddler, last week, due to the terrible condition of the roads in Rajpalya, Near Hoodi circle made the city and the residents of Whitefield sit up, take notice and subsequently, take appropriate action. Disturbed by the unfortunate accident, residents of various communities in the Whitefield area, came together on Saturday, December 7, 2013 to protest against the pathetic condition of roads as well as related infrastructure: lack of pavements, medians, street lights, haphazard parking of BMTC buses, container trucks, lorries and water tankers - all adding to the chaos every single day. More than 200…