silkboard's blog

What BDA spent on Abide

16 August 2008 - 12:10pm — silkboard

Mr A pulled out BDA's expense report on Abide (remember this event?). He found that BDA spent Rs.21,86,487 for that full day session at IISc. See a similar news reported about BBMP (Biscuits worth Rs 50000). That small event has allegedly been over-accounted. The same can't be said about Abide event, this is pure information for public consumption.

Parking for profit, and how we can help

11 August 2008 - 11:19am — silkboard

Location, Whitefield. First photo may tell you nothing, whats wrong with parking on the edge of the road anyway. Second one tells you why I clicked it. Blatant, isn't it?

We see examples like this everyday. Some of us fools waste time taking pictures. And the rarest of rare, nut cases, take the trouble of sending these to Traffic Police to feel like doing 'their bit'.

2000 acres for IT park, what about other things?

7 August 2008 - 6:11pm — silkboard

I am terribly sorry. But I have an issue with developments like these - new IT park on 2000 acres around the city (source: DH). No, I am not going to speak the beaten line of farmland acquisition. I am not anti development at all, but I speak for us, the urban dwellers who lead close to miserable lives in this city today.

The government is setting up a sprawling IT park on 2,000 acres around the City to create the much-needed space for IT firms to expand their activities.

Wonderful news, and the plans look good. But lets do some maths now.

BMTC and Rs 750 crores

7 August 2008 - 5:46pm — silkboard

BMTC has postponed its Rs 750 crore IPO for the time being due to volatile market conditions. But its never too late to look at their plans. BMTC had submitted a Rs 3000 crore plan tothe center under JNNURM to "modernize and expand its network to meet the public transport demands of a growing city.". The plan is (source: Livemint) "to raise money from the public to add luxury buses on newer routes".

Namma Raste - road use efficiency

5 August 2008 - 9:39am — silkboard

Read in an email this morning that on 19th July 2008, a workshop on “Reclaiming Bangalore’s roads: Namma Raste” was jointly organized by Environment Support Group (ESG), CIVIC Bangalore and Alternative Law Forum at Vidyadeep, Ulsoor Road, Bangalore.

The context for this meeting was the PIL against BBMP over widening of 91 roads. Apparently, the claim is that the widening projects will increase average vehicle speeds from 8-10 km/hr to 40 km/hr (ref: material from ESG/HU - these should soon be up on ESG website, so I will save myself copy paste jobs here).

Voter id card - the struggle continues

3 August 2008 - 2:05pm — silkboard

I thought today will be that day - my voter id card (EPIC) in my hand. After seeing the notices in newspapers, excitedly, I went to the school in the nearby halli, and asked for my card.

Understanding law and order + policing

31 July 2008 - 10:40am — silkboard

[Forked out of this thread on id-cards] Talking law and order in general, the mess is probably deeper than the issue of id-cards: there are a lot of things involved. Lets try analyze this if we can. Let me put a common sense based list of things on the table as I see them:

Speed governors for all vehicles!

28 July 2008 - 6:53pm — silkboard

Folks, stand up and applaud this. Read in Biz-standard this morning that Central government is thinking about making speed governors mandatory in all vehicles. I have always wondered, why make cars that do 150 kmph when such speeds are not legal anywhere in the country. And why is it that the push for speed governors was so far being made only for commercial vehicles?

I think just the way mobile phone technology was a leapfrog solution to help increase teledensity, technology can help us with solutions for traffic management. Think of this for example.

Creative agency to improve driver behaviour

20 July 2008 - 5:53pm — silkboard

Spotted this interesting thing today. KRDCL is looking to hire a Creative Agency as consultant for spreading road safety awareness and improving road user behaviour in Bangalore. How much money is budgeted for this is not clear. Since KRDCL is putting this out, and not Traffic Police or BBMP, I am guessing this is part of the BTRAC-2010 (KRDCL is the nodal agency for it).

Here is the goal as listed in the document (click here to read) from KRDCL:

Traffic & Transportation Policies and Strategies

18 July 2008 - 4:26pm — silkboard

Executive Summary of a Wilbur Smith study on Traffic & Transportation Policies and Strategies in Urban Areas in India is now available on the website of Ministry of Urban Development. The 20 page summary document makes a good reading.

Praja members would love the language, especially the terms like "slow moving vehicle index", "on-street parking interference index". Essentially, they have quantified stuff like "entropy", "edge friction", "turbulence" and "viscosity" that we often borrow and use here at Praja from thermo and fluid dynamics. Some equations for example:

HAL: invest before re-opening?

17 July 2008 - 6:08pm — silkboard

Just for a moment, forget those debates around whether HAL should re-open or not. Lets say a re-opening is coming (via court order, govt forcing its will, or whatever). Then, in the Praja spirit of positivity and high expectations(!), what would be the best ways of re-opening and operating this airport?

BBMP doing bus bays for BMTC - slow progress?

15 July 2008 - 6:09pm — silkboard

Late last year (Nov 2007), we were told read about BMTC requesting BBMP for 140 bus bays. Refer this Nov 07 Hindu article:

The Traffic Engineering Cell (TEC) of the BBMP has ... invited tenders for 100 bus bays out of 140 proposed by the BMTC ... official of the cell told The Hindu that construction was likely to begin in a month and completed in three months.

Upcoming flyover on ORR at BTM - short sighted?

7 July 2008 - 9:47am — silkboard

Its flyover time again. BBMP has invited bids for "Consultancy Services For Preparation Of DPR For The Construction Of Grade Separator At The Junction Of Ring Road And 16th Main BTM Layout". (Also see:RFP for this flyover). So once this is done, those heading towards Electronics City, instead of waiting at 16th main signal, they will all wait longer at the silk board signal. And in the evenings, the signal under Jaideva circle flyover will see twice or thrice the amount of waiting traffic it currently does.

Urban Transportation reforms around the BMLTA concept

2 July 2008 - 9:37am — silkboard

In the telecom space, you have TRAI which is a national level regulatory body. Rightly so, since telecom networks have national footprint through interconnections, it need not be looked at as a state subject. Drawing a parallel for our state, think of extending BMLTA concept - a Karnataka state land transport authority (KSLTA). Why so? Because we want efficient two or three change connectivity from Whitefield to Haradanahalli as well, and not just to Jayanagar or Malleswaram. Just like the primary schools, every region needs good connectivity.

Abide - Participation, PR and Networking! (edited)

29 June 2008 - 10:32am — silkboard

Oh yeah. Murali Sir and I were there. 10 am - 4 pm, a good 6 hours. Met so many people, and heard and saw so much, that I need some time to organize and share the details. Enjoy some pictures till then, will update this post with notes pretty soon.

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