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Date: whats the point?

Governance
What is that? A board proudly displaying information about a public project at Marathahalli. Work detail says: "construction of approaches to road over bridge". Does that include the bridge work as well, or only the approach roads? Where does the approach road start, and end?

Bangalore Auto Transit Authority

Traffic

Autos in Bangalore are at a minimum Rs 44crore/annum business*, employ atleast 30,000 people directly**, and have a transportation model that most public transit systems will kill for. Yet autos and their drivers are known for all the wrong reasons. I hypothesize, because they have got the organization all wrong.

Also Read: Reva and Autorickshaw

The interesting Metro update

Metro Rail

Just read through Bangalore Metro's August'07 updates. Read through the first few pages of that pdf, and you realize that land acquisition seems to be delaying a few tasks - notice the schedule column, search for phrases "revised" or "after land acquisition".

These delays were always expected to be a part of the project, so no complaints there. But one key update you and I should look forward to takes the cake as far as disclosing information is concerned:

Reva and Autorickshaw?

Public Transport

There is this one thing I was hoping would happen, but it never did. Why did the promoters and makers of Reva (Maini) never try to push electric vehicles as an alternative to present-day auto-rickshaws?

An auto-rickshaw costs around Rs 1.3 lakhs today. 4 stroke ones would be a little more expensive than that. Most metro cities will sooner or later be pushing for a rickshaw overhaul, which as per current trends is an upgrade to cleaner engines running on CNG or four strokes.

Metro to encash 'Green'liness

Metro Rail
For a government controlled body, BMRC is really industrious and we have seen them taking a lot welcome steps earlier. Now, like a real smart company, BMRC plans to encash its environment friendliness using 'Carbon Bonds' from UNFCCC. Here is a kind of FAQ on that topic.

Bangalore Encroached II

Some insider stories, some disturbing questions, and a few happy trends for public participation and accessible governance.

Some Photos of Where the Road Ends

A complete dead end to all the work.
Here are some photos of where the Road really ends. If this would have continued, then it could have been connected to the BTM road which goes just beside the lake.

Bannerghatta Road Alternatives

Exploring ideas about a radial corridor from BTM layout to points further south. This corridor will act as an alternative to Bannerghatta and Hosur Roads.

Letters to editors and letters from readers

I read at least two newspapers everyday, and one feature I like is - letters to editor. Sometimes, you also hear of 'success stories' (like Nisho's about an open drain) resulting from these letters.

Well, I am a fan of this reality-TV like content. If you ask me, newspapers can chose to go the rediff way (have you seen their news article based bulletin boards?) and start having an extra page full of these letters from readers. Yes that will sell well :) But actually, I read these letters - especially the ones that complain about a local service or public amenity - because they put me in these chains of thoughts:

Hebbal lake - floating restaurant is off!

A TOI report (Aug 16) says that EIH have canceled their plans to construct floating restaurant on Hebbal Lake:"The idea was that adequate income would be generated by those who got the lease for the lake's upkeep. However, the group has now decided that we are not going ahead with the project. We took up the lake to restore it. It is a social project for us,'' added Ketki (from EIH) ... Asked for the reason for the change in plans, she said the project had attracted way too much attention and criticism by environmentalists and conservationists in the city.

There is another side to these green protests - what will be the motivation for corporates to come forward and "own" lakes under Lake Development Authority's lake upkeep plans? Two points on that:



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