Infrastructure

Lack of occupancy certifcate might mean your dreamhome might have certain violations too. File pic. “We are happy to inform you that your dream home is ready for possession and registration. Handover & registration process will be initiated on receipt of the balance payment. We wish you a comfortable stay in your new apartment.”  This is the news you have been waiting for! Ever since the day that you booked the apartment, three years ago, you have been saving and planning to fulfil the dream of your very own home. This email is soon followed by the Final Payment Request Letter…

Trucks that don't exist in reality are added to garbage transport database of BBMP by adding random numbers, which sometimes include two-wheelers and buses! Pic: Shree D N First the High Court, then the Chief Minister. Now it is the turn of Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of Karnataka to point fingers at Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s garbage management. CAG has noted that BBMP has spent more than the amount allotted towards Solid Waste Management expenses; At the same time, BBMP has lost more than 66 crores by not collecting cess in 2008-11 from 18.38 lakh households! In the CAG Report…

X orders more coffee. He has made his point. But who is in charge – surely there must be someone in charge? I ask. Before plunging in to fix this corner themselves, X and V have done some basic asking around. The question they had was simple – So who’s really in charge of the street in Bangalore? They found that there was no single person or authority. And that is why the streets are such a mess. There is a maze of authorities in charge of different aspects of Bangalore’s civic infrastructure, each of which is a law unto…

You are in a newly constructed large apartment community or in an individual house, and you don’t know where to send your garbage. Throwing it on to the streets is illegal, and you are a nice person who wouldn’t do it. You have a solution now : igotgarbage.com (IGG). An initiative of Information Technology company Mindtree, in association with Hasirudala, Saahas Zero Waste, Daily Dump and other stakeholders who manage IT city’s waste, IGG connects the waste collectors who dispose it responsibly, to waste generators who want to see their waste managed responsibly. Prashant Mehra, project manager of IGG does…

Can you show me the photo of the rat, V asked. Bangalore is a great city for rats, he remarked – it’s almost like the city is designed for them! It didn’t seem the best topic for conversation in a restaurant, but by now I had got quite immune to such stuff. Once you work in muck, talking about it is easy. X went on – The place we fixed is Rat Heaven. Let me tell you why. He took out a pencil and started sketching. Do you have any idea what lies beneath the footpath? He began explaining. Here’s…

Expert Committee on Solid Waste Management submitted to the High Court in Bengaluru that a simple and the only solution to solve Mandur problem effectively was to screen the dump, recover the useful materials and dispose the organic and inert waste, through a process called biomining. On Friday (June 13th 2014) the Green Bench of High Court of Karnataka, comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice N Kumar received the suggestions by the Expert Committee, on how to dispose the existing dump, the measures to be taken by the BBMP among others. A copy of the suggestions ia available with…

Today at 6.30pm Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will interact with Spain on best practices for managing waste. I am not sure which adage passed my mind when I read the latest news report on BBMP and our garbage mess. “Grasping at straws” for seeking help from sister city San Francisco or “Making hay when sun shines” for possibly sending officials to Dubai to study waste management. Wasted BBMP trips on managing waste When Sharadamma was the mayor, a BBMP team led by her had visited Pune. In 2012, a team led by then-deputy S Harish went to Israel to study…

A small portion of the garbage pile in Mandur landfill. Pic: Shree D N The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has withheld the payment of more than three crores to Srinivas Gayathri Resources Recovery Limited (SGRRL), the only processing unit at one of the garbage dumping yards at Mandur, that supposedly had the capacity to process 600 tonnes of waste per day. This resulted in the company shutting down its operations three months ago, claims Srinivas Reddy, the Operations Manager of the plant at Mandur, located near to Hoskote Highway on the north-eastern outskirts of Bengaluru. What waste management firm says:BBMP…

Satish Reddy, Bommanahalli MLA, accompanying the protestors near KCDC. Pic: Rakshith G V  Residents of Somasundarapalya in Bengaluru have been protesting against the stench emitted by the  Karnataka Compost Development Corporation(KCDC)’s composting unit at HSR Layout. However Saturday's (May 24, 2014) protest was different: They had the MLA of Bommanahalli, Satish Reddy, to back them. Outside KCDC’s second gate, located next to Somasundarapalya lake, residents from the nearby apartments and houses gathered. They complained to the MLA about the smell, and claimed that their children are falling ill. The MLA claimed: “The stench is causing health problems for the people.…

The primary reason for the stench generated by the KCDC like units, I feel, is simply because they are trying to handle more than the unit is designed to handle. Every unit has an optimal capacity that it can handle. But either due to bad planning or prestige issues one tries to go over the capacity and then the whole system eventually comes to a grinding halt. It will not even be able to handle what it was capable of. The second (and important) reason for the stench is because so much plastic is mixed up in the wet waste.…