Blogs

BIAL Updates

4 September 2007 - 7:13am — tsubba

Despite major mid term course revisions, BIAL will open for commercial flights on March 30, 2008. Three days before schedule. Now only 15% of the work is pending.

Your property tax for 2005 ...

3 September 2007 - 2:40pm — silkboard

... is due! Spotted an interesting BBMP tender that tells us that you could very soon find letters like that in mail.

"BBMP requires services ... to extract data, print Demand/Collection/Balance notices of owners of the Properties in BBMP area ... for the fiscal year 2005"

Further details of scope of this work tells you a bit about the level of computerization at BBMP's end:

Automatic, but not quite

3 September 2007 - 2:09pm — silkboard

I say good job BESCOM as far as automation is concerned. Those hand-helds to instantly print out your monthly electricity bill, and these automatic payment accepting machines.

This just in. Just when things were getting boring, Star of Mysore is reporting... Bangalore, Aug. 30 (OSR) - In a far-reaching decision this morning the Sate coalition Cabinet has annulled the agreement which it had entered into in 1995 with the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE).

Minority Biased Junctions

29 August 2007 - 2:41pm — rajatbhatla

About 4 years ago, Bangalore got its spanking new 200 ft wide double laned with 40 feet service lanes, Outer Ring road...

One would drive up here to break free from the traffic snarls elsewhere in the city...and check if their spanky investments still worked at high speeds.

Mostly worked fine, until a small hitch started showing up first little, then some more... and these days in full measure...

Shops and parking - This is how it begins

28 August 2007 - 1:31pm — silkboard

Recently, while passing through Kundalahalli gate, I noticed that some shops had suddenly sprung up on an empty plot. Going by what I understand of BBMP bylaws, the construction does seem illegal. These shops are literally standing on the footpath, and bang on a major intersection. Of course, there is no place to park bikes or cars here. So once they start doing business, customers' vehicles could block some serious traffic (intersection of Varthur Road and Brookfield main road leading to ITPL).

Bangalore Airport: The CRS Option

28 August 2007 - 7:19am — tsubba

With the new airport set to open, ideas on how to get there have flown thick and fast. Here are some thoughts on leveraging the existing rail network.

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Airport expressway update

23 August 2007 - 8:02pm — silkboard

We have all been screaming on the subject for a while now. But this business-standard update on BIAL expressway is interesting, because it talks dates:

... sources said many powerful politicians also owned land along the alignment ... and wanted it changed ... “We changed the alignment five times unofficially before freezing it. But they are still not satisfied. If the land acquisition process is completed by July, the expressway will be ready by March 2009 but that appears improbable. As things stand, the expressway will not be ready even by 2009-end,” a source said.

Date: whats the point?

23 August 2007 - 12:41pm — silkboard

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

22 August 2007 - 6:18am — tsubba

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.

The interesting Metro update

22 August 2007 - 1:59am — silkboard

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?

22 August 2007 - 12:33am — silkboard

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

21 August 2007 - 3:20pm — shas3n

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

20 August 2007 - 5:05am — tsubba

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

Letters to editors and letters from readers

17 August 2007 - 10:26am — silkboard

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:

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