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Road to airport? Not so soon!

Aviation

Everyone, even FM P. Chidambaram seems to know that when the BIAL airport will finally be ready, it wont be accessible easily. There is practicaly no high-capacity road or rail link to connect the city to the airport. Thats the reason he asked the state Govt. to expedite the work on the connectivity and get the roads ready by next 9 months.

Two new loops at Silk Board flyover?

Traffic

If you hate blogs and The Hindu for sounding so critical and negative, then you must appreciate the effort "Times Property" supplement makes at providing positive and constructive "news" on infrastructure front. I put news under quotes there because some say advertisers on that supplement ensure a positive picture is painted.

Yedi - cool to NICE and BMIC?

Politics

Very short post this one. ToI (Saturday, Aug 4) had carried an interview of the CM-in-waiting Mr Yediyurappa, and I found this answer very interesting:

TOI: Were you consulted on the change in government’s policy on BMIC?

Hey, how about us?

I just couldn't find a right tag for this post and even thought about whether this fits at Praja. Its about an ongoing strike impacting all of us at Bangalore. Agricultural produce traders are on a strike because they are not happy with government's recent move to allow private parties to buy produce directly from farmers. Wait, don't run away, I am not going to talk about geeky stuff like APMC act, organized retail, their impacts and such.

Mono too much to handle for BMRC

Metro Rail
We had recently heard about BMRC trying to finalise the bids for Mono project. But surprisingly BMRC realised that Mono will be too much to handle with its plate already being full with Metro. It has hence submitted a plea to Govt. asking the Mono to be handled by some other agency. Looks like the Gove will oblige.

Not my fault

It costs Rs 5000 and there is no online version available, not even a summarized one. So while I am yet to read Bangalore's Masterplan-2015, newspapers have been supplying bits and bytes on it. Of them recently, this one caught my attention. Apparently, with CDP-2015, Architects, planners and engineers face the threat of losing licences if they fail to report violations of building byelaws, and they are not happy with it:

"By bringing in this clause, the authorities, they allege, are shifting the burden of enforcing the laws to architects, town planners and engineers."

Alright, government bashing is fashion of the day. But I fail to see the rationale behind general expectations that everything is the responsibility of "officials". (Actually, I find this word "officials" pretty amusing, will save that for a later post).

Lanes, Are They Useful?

Traffic

Can lane discipline really reduce traffic jams? Are lanes of any use? Given how things are, not as they are designed, and not unless they put some thought to it.

BBMP's online promise

Did you know that Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has an online RTI system to accept queries for information? Select who you want to ask, what you want to know, your details and it should give you a registration number. Then, use this registration number to check status of your query. I am guessing that the usual RTI query deadline of 30 days will apply, so you should get responses.

GHMC's equivalent for Bengaluru, BBMP doesn't have such a system. But don't be disappointed, it may be on its way. Recently, a note appeared on BBMP's RTI page that says such a system is being deployed. Pretty good. But hang on, BBMP hasn't set good precedents on online interaction front.

Candle Light Vigil To Save Hebbal Lake Bangalore

Lakes

Some students of the Mallya Aditi International School, Bangalore are taking lead and organizing a candle light vigil on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 6:30 p.m to save the Hebbal Lake. All you need to bring is candles and sense of care to save the lake.

[Background: Home to thousands of birds and source of livelihood to hundreds of people, the Hebbal Lake, is set to make way for a floating restaurant and other recreational activities all in the name of preservation. Some say this recreational center violates zoning regulations. Before that, is privatization of Bangalore's lakes the only route available to LDA for preserving them?]

Banerghatta Road to Hosur - shortcut?

Traffic
We all know how bad the area round 19th main intersection is. (marker #1 in the map below). So it is not a surprise, that a shortcut to get to Hosur Road is getting pretty popular. I am guessing markers #2 and #3 are it. Or is it a set of roads further south, someone correct or confirm please.
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Report from Devanahalli

Srivathsa mailed in this report from his drive to Devenahalli yesterday:

"Drove yesterday to Devanahalli on some other work. The road after Hebbal flyover is in pretty good shape. There are no real bottlenecks there - but a number of potential accident zones. The real bottlenecks are at Cauvery theatre, then the stretch along UAS or just before that. Very narrow roads with a number of right turns and intersections. Some serious de-bottlenecking needs to be done along this stretch.

Once past Hebbal - a grade separator is needed at the entry to yelahanka town. Of course a really bad accident will probably have to happen before something gets done. Then along the way there are a number of intersections where grade separators as well as pedestrian overpasses are needed. They also need to plan some elevated U-turns.

Govt considering booting NICE for BMIC

In a not-so-unexpected move, the Govt announced that it plans to replace NICE as the contractor for BMIC with a new consortium called GIC. (Source DH, VK)

"GIC has put forth a proposal indicating that it would accept the terms and conditions of the framework agreement of April 3, 1997 signed between Karnataka and NICE and would pay the cost of existing infrastructure as evaluated by an independent agency while taking over the project on as-is-where-is-basis."

A new secretary to 'oversee' BMIC project

Came to know today that state government has created a post to keep tabs on BMIC. Neither the tone of the news piece nor the situation suggests the move is to speed track any decisions on the project. Perhaps it is more to watch over babus like Mr Sridhara who was pulled up recently for transferring KIADB land to NICE.

Bangalore Encroached

A motely crew of legislators headed by MLA AT Ramaswamy have discovered that in and around Bangalore, an entire Mysore has been encroached upon by the country's who's who. And thats just the half of it.

Marathahalli bridge updates

Traffic

[Updated July 28] Construction work is on for the other half of the railway bridge. 3 new lanes opened in March, but how long before we get the new 3 lanes? I am guessing about 3 more months. Earth filling work is complete on east side, and is currently on from ORR side. The old bridge is all but gone, and its replacement is making a slow progress.

That area, literally a war zone for sometime now with construction in sight everywhere, has been an interesting picture of contrast over last year. While the bridge has been moving at its sarkaari pace, those big apartment complexes have added floor after floors! What happens when all those apartments - at least 2000-2500 units waiting for movers there - go live!? I am told they planned for this very predictable chaos. How exactly, I don't know. But there are some possible ways to deal with this:

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