Commute

BWSSSB's incomplete pipeline project is causing immense suffering to the residents of JP Nagar 8th & 9th Phase, Bengaluru. The trench dug to lay pipelines is a serious hazard for those passing by. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi After digging up and blocking the main road connecting Kanakpura Road and Bannerghatta Road , work has stopped on this BWSSB project, which started over 4 months ago. Citizen Matters followup K N Rajiv, Assistant Executive Engineer, BWSSB, told Citizen Matters over the phone that pipeline work has been completed and the pipes are being tested for any leakage. "The project will be…

  I saw in Citizen Matters that I could volunteer for Bus Day this month:  here's the announcement So I've registered myself....let's see what I am asked to do, and what happens! It's going to be interesting, and I am rather tickled by the concept that "celebrities" cannot take the bus without assistance!      ⊕

   At 8.30 pm on the 4th of April, I took the BIAS Vayu Vajra (BIAS 12, to KuVemPu Nagara)nfrom the airport to my home.On the way, a group of four passengers got on,and asked for tickets. They paid Rs. 60( four tickets of Rs.15 each) , and the conductor said that the tickets would cost Rs.20 each. The young man who was one of the group protested, saying that he had taken the Volvo yesterday and had paid only Rs.15, and he would not pay the higher amount.The conductor insisted that the amount was correct. The passenger demanded that the…

The other day I was having a rather interesting conversation/debate with some of my colleagues and friends which I thought was worth reporting here. This was a conversation about equity in Bangalore's BMTC buses. My friends were analyzing equity and accessibility in BMTC buses. Somehow the conversation veered towards the topic of Volvo buses and whether the city needs different kinds of buses, and this is where there was a sharp difference of opinion between my friends' thoughts and my own.My friends were of the opinion that there shouldn't be different kinds of buses for different kinds of people. By…

Most buses have only the pictures of fetching starlets on them...so once in a while, it's good to see someone that we can all look up to! What a pleasant surprise it was, to see this!⊕

12 Bus Days till date. Officials say the initiative has been successful and it will begin the second year of Bus Day on Friday. It's been a year since the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) initiated the Bus Day programme. Started on February 4, 2010, BMTC introduced extra buses along twelve corridors of the city on the 4th of every month. Studies indicated that at least 5,000 cars were off roads on this day, bringing down pollution levels considerably. (Source: Times of India)But is Bus Day really a success. Did it encourage commuters to use BMTC for one day or…

The contractor who built the recently inaugurated JP Nagar underpass is now in the dock for poor quality of work. BBMP is planning to withhold Rs.2 crores of payments to pressurise the contractor to finish the work. JP Nagar's 15th Cross underpass. Incomplete and riddled with issues. Pic: Yogaraj S Mudalgi Poor quality of asphalting and water stagnation along drains of service roads have been among the many issues, along with a whole host of unfinished work. BBMP's technical vigilance committee (TVC) gave a report to Commissioner Siddiah in January. On Feb 2, BBMP's Executive Engineer inspected the site and…

From February 7, infotech companies along Outer Ring Road are using a city-provided Common Bus System (CBS) to transport their employees to and from work. The system, initiated by Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) - which comprises 24 companies including Cisco, Intel, AOL etc - is expected to get more IT employees to use buses instead of private vehicles. BMTC Managing Director Syed Pasha dressed in white shirt towards the back of the bus, and Seetharam Vishwanath, ORRCA General Secretary at the flagging off ceremony of CBS on February 4. Pic courtesy: ORRCA. ORRCA reached an agreement with the…

On a mailing list for cyclists, that I belong to, I received this analysis,from Chidambaran Subramanianb, of why road-widening is not a sustainable option:"Cut down the trees, widen the roads , make them signal free if possible. Good, I am pretty sure that there will be no congestion for a week. Then, with the added cars everyday in the city and the new cars that are coming/going to come, there will be congestion and much more pollution than before. Now people will take another road which is pleasant and tree-laden. Identify that as an arterial road , widen it and…

12 bus days later, why not sit down to share around some notes on the concept. When some folks first talked about it (back in October 2009), it was meant to be a day to promote public transport. PT day, CyBaNa (cycle, bus, nadi as in walk) day were some variants floating around. The reality for Bengaluru is that, today and for next 5-6 years for sure, PT would mostly mean Bus. The modes Cy and Na are mostly going to hinge around the Bus. Read this Citizen Matters article on the initiation of bus day concept. The Bus Day…