silkboard's blog

It helps no one except the driver of the bus when he decides not to cut left and go closer to the kerb at bus stands. Folks have to walk up, or wait on the roads, and not at the shelter (if one exists in the first place). And the bus blocks traffic on the road.

Imagine the noise if our new international airport had no escalators to take you up from check-in area to the departure hall? 'Super shoddy', 'oh these cheapos', coin-your-expletives, or 'like our station' right? Switch over to the City station, and remember how you lugged your stuff up the stairs from the platform to the footbridge and back down again.

We can hear you say - there are porters to help. Why does the airport not save some money by arranging for 50-60 porters? Before this gets into socialism vs capitalism like arguments, analyze this.

A few deaths on Bellary Road, and it got so much attention. By the way, police's efforts to enforce are working, I hear that a good number of cabs keep themselves to 80 kmph, and drivers either buckle up or think about putting on seat belts on Nh7. So perhaps, the fear of punishment does work. Now, how about the Bangalore Mysore highway?

First of all, its foolish to build high speed roads that are not access controlled in whatever way, limited or full fledged. That road is literally hell right now, with death awaiting at about 50-60 points along the 100 odd km length.

Its an open secret for us in Whitefield area by now. There is this scenic route that skirts around city's mad traffic and takes you to BIA in an hour, any time of the day! The drive is just under 60 km, point to point. However, listen to this, last 18 kilometers are spent circling around BIA only because there is no entry to the airport from the East side. Some pictures for you, and the route map as well. Basically, you go from Hope Farm junction to Hoskote, on to Budigere, and then to the airport via a village just north of it, or via Devanahalli itself which is much further north of the airport.

Got this on Janaagraha's email group. worth posting, and nice initiative.

Mr M N Srihari, a traffic expert on Yeddy's new elite panel for Bangalore infrastructure has been on the record saying that CRS is a solution for Bangalore. Quoting from this Daijiworld article:

 

“Utilising existing electrified railway lines within a 30-kilometre radius from the city centre and operating diesel-electric multiple units (DEMUs) constitute CRS,” ... each DEMU can have five to 10 coaches and can operate at speeds of 75 kmph. “Operating DEMUs can reduce 25 percent of traffic,” Sreehari said.

Entropy, aka chaos on the roads is a subject we have discussed a lot here. There are about a hundred comments thrown across various posts. How about consolidating those points and making them more presentable via picture posts? Here is my attempt with pictures over last two months. Look, we need to explain and understand one thing very clearly. Flyovers and road widening projects are like buying extra large clothes to deal with obesity. Some folks prefer exercises or medicines to shed some fat.

Read in newspapers last week that if things go as being planned Hyderabad will end up getting a 71 km long Metro for free! Actually, not just free, they will end up getting paid some money (Rs 1240 crores, about 10% of the project cost of Rs 12410 crores) by the winning consortium. Read it yourself, this biz-standard article - Hyd to get 71 km Metro for free. Stats to compare from cost angle are - 65 km Delhi Metro comes at Rs 10500 crores, and 42 km Bangalore at Rs 6500 Crores, both are state funded.