Infrastructure

Though Bengaluru's weather has been a tad moody the past couple of days, it is common knowledge that come summer, as the temperatures rise, so will the water tanker prices. Earlier this year, Citizen Matters had assisted in collecting data for a joint study between a student from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and IIM Bangalore’s New Real Estate initiative on the water tanker industry in Bangalore. Here are the results from the survey. This map aims to give information about water tanker rates across the city of Bangalore, and an insight into the availability (or lack of) water in…

With High Court granting a stay, EWS housing rule published by the government has hit the roadblocks again. File Pic. Unhappy over the final regulation on earmarking housing for economically weaker sections (EWS), published by the Urban Development Department recently, the Bengaluru chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) has approached the High Court and got a stay order on the implementation of the new regulation. With this, the regulation is bound to be left at cold storage till the court resolves the dispute. The High Court in its interim order dated March 30th 2015 has…

File pic. Courtesy: Keshava Kumar N The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) has planned a price hike. This is a reaction from a citizen to the price hike proposal. A report on reactions by various political and civic bodies was carried earlier by Citizen Matters. This is a reaction by a citizen to the issue. A report by the Economic Times says that BESCOM will be incurring a loss of Rs. 850 crore, due to the exit of the ‘big-ticket’ customers like Wipro, SAP Labs, Manyata Tech Park, Sasken and others from their client list. This has been used as…

Managing all the facilities in an apartment, from water supply to garbage to electricity, is the job of a facility manager, which requires expertise. File pic. Picture this. An apartment complex at the heart of Bengaluru, that has 40 units. The Management Committee for the apartment has three members, all of whom have their own day jobs. One fine summer morning, the motor that supplies water to the complex breaks down. There is a need to purchase a replacement motor quickly. Add to it, the members who do not see eye to eye on anything. By the time they have…

What would be the total number of residential high-rise buildings in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, built during the last five years? If the data provided by the BBMP is anything to go by, 97 is the exact number of buildings built in the Capital city between 2009 and 2014, which have been issued official Occupancy Certificates by BBMP. What is more puzzling is the reply given by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Assembly session last month, confirming that no cases of residential apartments failing to obtain Occupancy Certificates have come to the notice of the government. However, if…

L&T South City is an apartment complex in JP Nagar. Comprising 2,000 flats, the complex has four borewells, from which it draws 2 lakh litre water per day. Along with this, the complex also buys water from Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and water tankers. The complex has a functional sewage treatment plant as per KSPCB guidelines, and uses treated water for flushing and gardening. Apartment residents say that any water left into the BWSSB sewage line is treated water. Still, the complex ends up paying sanitary charge of Rs 2 lakh per month. The residents don’t see…

Way back, on 31st August 2010, the Supreme Court of India ruled that a builder/ developer/ promoter (of flats/ group housing) cannot sell open or stilt parking area (meaning uncovered or covered parking space) once the owners' society is formed, as the said space becomes a part of “common areas and facilities” of the Society.  The judgment was delivered by a bench of Justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik in the case of Nahalchand Laloochand Pvt Ltd (a promoter from Mumbai) vs Panchali Co-operative Housing Society Ltd, subsequent to an appeal made by the former against a Mumbai…

Most of us are familiar with the Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purifier technology that has been around for a few years now, even if not using it. While it seems to be widely accepted that RO-based purifiers are suitable for water supplies having high TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) content, debates have been on about the effects on our health due to the demineralized water that we consume after the RO-purification. Demineralisation aside, I would like to turn to one glaring feature of this technology in its current form: water runoff–that is, the non-potable water that an RO-purifier generates during the…

Drain at Nayandahalli where e-waste rejects are disposed of. Pic: Varsha Parashivamurthy The scene at the Nayandahalli near Vrishabhavathi, the river that carries the sewage from the city of Bengaluru, is truly a sight to behold—white froth billows out of the surface of the water. The stench emanating from the sewage is unbearable.  This is also the place where some of the e-waste collected by the municipality attains nirvana. Batteries, CDs, spare parts of cell phones, broken television sets, tube lights, old radio devices, outdated music systems—this is the final destination for all such waste. ‘CDs, CFLs absolutely waste’ An…

Author: Tanmayee Narendra What does it mean to be “educated”? Does education necessarily mean a more heightened awareness about one’s role in society? These are some questions that I was forced to ask myself after I met with John, the manager of the Dry Waste Collection Center (DWCC) near the Jayadeva Flyover. Let me tell you more about John. John comes from a family of scrap dealers. While thoughts of garbage generally trigger images of filth and refuse for most of us, the same object is a source of income for him. John at his Dry Waste Collection Centre. Pic:…