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Flyovers - Thank God the ‘truth’ is out!

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Ah, was I glad to see major newspapers talk negative about flyovers last month!! The irony is that these folks are responsible for building the hype around the ‘f’ word. Anyways, good. We finally realize these things are not the panacea. Yeah they aren’t, and I'll tell you why.

By the way, its not just the mainstream media, Union urban development ministry too has the right language now. Did you read this last week:

No, Mono isn't dead yet

Metro RailTraffic

It might be the one legged cousin of super glamorous Metro. But the Mono project isn't dead if you thought so based on recent lack of news and updates on it. The Hindu reported that BMRC is close to making the call on picking a consultant for Mono. As expected, newspapers have more meat than BMRC website itself. However, BMRC has this cryptic sounding note on their news page right now:

Non-stop to San Francisco, finally!

Air India logo

Read today that Air India is planning a non-stop Bangalore - SFO connection. Cool! Long pending, this thing was. I have always wondered why Jet or Air India haven't tried to eat into all the money Lufthansa, Singapore, British etc are making on Bangalore - US West Coast routes. I bet once KingFisher gets its permit to fly abroad, we'd have another BLR-SFO direct.

BMTC to introduce e-purse

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We have been hearing about using smart cards for ticketing on BMTC buses and looks like there is some progress on that front. This TOI report says that things are being sorted out with all involved parties to introduce smart cards.

Future of Silk board junction

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Who isn't excited about Hosur Road elevated expressway? While I too am looking forward to completion of this project - they say its on track and moving well - I do think that this thing will make managing traffic around silk board junction a bit tough.

Bangalore Master Plan 2015

You must be reading about the Bangalore Master Plan in newspapers everyday. Land use regulations, new areas open for development, new FAR ratios etc etc.

The BTIS thingie from BTRAC

Bangalore Police inserted half page ads in papers today* saying they have fulfilled their early promises made via BTRAC. While let us reserve the judgment on that claim, they have been talking good stuff, giving us good previews of what they could do if they get serious about things.

BMRDA townships and the new SEZs

When I first heard about Nandagudi SEZ, I was confused. After all, Nandagudi is one of the five peripheral localities where BMRDA is planning to setup integrated townships. If you dont believe me, go to this BMRDA page for reference, it says Bidadi, Ramanagaram, Solur, Santhanur and Nandagudi. We know that work on Bidadi integrated township is in the works, BMRDA has invited bids etc. We were told that once they learn things a bit at Bidadi, similar bids would be invited for other four townships as well.

With that background, tell me if my confusion is valid. To top it further, I read last week that SEZ things are in progress for Ramangaram, Solur and Santhanur as well. What exactly is it then? Are these peripheral SEZs meant to be competition for BMRDA’s integrated townships? Or are they meant to complement? Or, are they part of BMRDA’s peripheral plans themselves?

Yelliddira?

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Looks like these BMTC folks will never get enough of going high-tech. We recently wrote about easy-auto a phone/sms based service. And today we hear that BMTC is launching an SMS based service too.

Metro Stations - Artist's impressions

Metro Rail

I must admit I know not about the authenticity of these images.

Here are some images (credit Skyscrapercity.com) that tell us how our Metro stations are going to look like.

 



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