Infrastructure

A press note from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Energy and Development, Bengaluru, an institute that is working under Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, Government of Karnataka, informs about a workshop of rooftop solar photovoltaic power systems and net energy metering. Edited excerpts from the press note: The Indian power sector is facing multiple crises, ranging from financial viability of distribution utilities to the challenges in ensuring quality power supply for all while trying to reduce adverse local socio-environmental impacts. It is well accepted that current fossil fuel based power is unsustainable and in the long term, a shift…

Approved Vendors for providing services to Bulk Waste generators for different categories of waste.pdf

Author: Sieta Van Horck Bengaluru is full of such trash dumps, though the scenario might change for better in future. Pic:Sandro Miccoli Scenarios such as the picture above are, unfortunately, not uncommon for a person who is taking a stroll through the roads in Bengaluru. This made us wonder—what is happening to the garbage we throw every day? And how is garbage managed in Bengaluru? As you can see in the picture above, currently the system is neither environment friendly nor sustainable. Therefore, we decided that we will focus our project around waste management in Bangalore. This five-month project is…

A garbage dump in residential Electronic City. Pic: Nishit Sharma It was a bitter cold morning of January 2010 in Jammu when my phone rang. It was a landline number with STD code as ‘080.’ I answered the call only to realise moments later that I had been called back into service from a nine-month sabbatical. This time, I was posted at the ‘Garden city of India.’ I was excited to start my second stint in Bangalore as it was the preferred destination for all software engineers. I booked my tickets and landed in Bangalore a week later. As mentioned…

Beyond Carlton has launched India’s first mobile app on fire safety. The app encourages citizen participation in identifying fire safety violations and reporting the same for effective action by the Fire Department. The app aims to: • To help identify more violations that can be addressed by the authorities• To sensitize and co-­opt citizens to play a more dominant role in fire safety Fire Champ, the mobile application, launched by Beyond Carlton along with technical support from IChangeMyCity.com and involvement of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services enables you to report any fire-­related measures not adhered to in a building around…

KCDC all set to process waste with new machines. Pic: Nikita Malusare With garbage segregation norms not being adhered to by most residents in the city, landfills are the norm. Even in cases where the segregation is properly done, there is little infrastructure that can handle the end-to-end processing of the waste. The segregated waste is sometimes getting mixed on its way to landfills. Lack of scientific processing of such waste is adding to the problem. Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) might have been established with a good intention of converting organic waste into compost. It would have been situated…

Bus submerged in the S C Road underpass. Pic courtesy: The Hindu Whenever it rains in the city, the drains in the city choke. It is a common sight to see the railway underpass near Anand Rao Circle on Subedar Chatram Road holding loads of water, not letting any vehicle pass through. Normal life in the surrounding areas goes out of gear. Now, as per the instructions of Ramalinga Reddy, Bangalore District In charge Minister, Mayor Shantakumari and BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana, BBMP officials have prepared a plan to construct a new side drain, within four months. The Palike plans…

Respected Sir, Sub: Imperatives for Smart Power for Smart Bengaluru BESCOM, as also all the other ESCOMs, have been claiming improved performances over the past few years. Even as that may be true, Sir, you'll appreciate that if Bengaluru, and the other Karnataka cities, have to be identified as "smart cities" of the future, the performances of these service providers have a very long way to go. And, it is totally doubtful if they can measure up to the task, given the constraints they are operating under, largely because of government ownership. The biggest problem they are facing today is…

Today KCDC has around 300 vermi-composting pits. Pic: Nikita Malusare I had ended my first blog on garbage (you can read this blog here) with the observation that the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation was not making a great deal of money from the business of producing compost from city garbage, even though we had a long waiting list of satisfied customers and no marketing problem on our hand. We had two problems with compost production. The first was that in a city that produced plenty of garbage - it was estimated to be around 1,000 tons per day then and…

  Pashmina Waterfront as seen on a Google map. Investing in real estate in Bangalore is a dream of any investor. However, is the growth of this sector in tune with the infrastructure that the city can handle? A close look by Citizen Matters at 26 constructions coming up in Whitefield - KR Puram area in East Bengaluru shows some alarming observations. When the 8,000 flats are fully occupied, new residents will need 10,662.87 KL of water a day (equivalent of 1780 water tankers of 6000 Litres). More than 19,697 cars will add to Whitefield traffic. Ministry of Environment and…