silkboard's blog

More teeth for Lokayukta - justification and risks

13 December 2009 - 7:50pm — silkboard

Refer the "Empower Lokayukta" campaign running elsewhere on this website. It is important to understand what exactly this "suo motu" thing means.

Quality footpaths from BBMP - good going at Whitefield

13 December 2009 - 10:55am — silkboard

When you see good work, you must appreciate and encourage BBMP. Its not covering all corners of Whitefield, just the main roads. But as they say, level of development of a city is determined by its footpaths and pavements, not the roads. And this is a good beginning.

It started in October I think when material started showing up around the roads

Using Praja to write a policy proposal

12 December 2009 - 11:54am — silkboard

Have been missing in action for a week now, but writing this note to draw attention to this proposal (Join hands to write ...) for using Praja.in website as a collaboration tool to develop a transportation policy proposal for Bengaluru.

Proposal: Green Score system for KSPCB/BBMP

29 November 2009 - 11:46pm — silkboard

Scaling up infrastructure and managing expectations of the greens isn't an easy job. A protest worthy job here and a green initiative there, one would expect to see some balance, and even better a system to quantify such balance. What if a body (BBMP or KSPCB) was to keep track of "green score" lost or scored on every project running in the city?

Public works - workings and problems

8 November 2009 - 9:32am — silkboard

This is to understand and the criticize the way this whole public tendering and works process works. Not as sexy a topic as Roads, Flyovers or Airports, but this is where it all happens - execution matters most. Most corruption also happens here as this is the place where money changes hands. Citizen involvement (lack of it) plays here - as work must be checked for quality.

Power supply - will Bangalore have choice, like Mumbai

29 October 2009 - 2:36pm — silkboard

How interesting is this news report Mumbai!? Is this an example of consumer benefitting from having choice? Worth wondering if Bengaluru will ever have choices like these?

Imagine Sarjapur suburb area, with Commuter Rail

26 October 2009 - 11:53pm — silkboard

To continue the dream series, and realization around commuter rail (CRS) possibilities, how do you imagine the suburban area around Sarjapur Road if CRS were to be around? Yes, water problem is another thing, but on transportation front:

The station

Where is the Rail station? Well, something already exists.

Bangalore Dreams - My Commute

23 October 2009 - 11:05pm — silkboard

Talking the popular subject of cramped commutes, in the middle of cribs and geek talk, we never put out our visions, Our vision, as in the end result if some things we wish for were to come true. Yes, no city level technical gyan etc - personal dreams. Let me start with my route.

Facts first.

250+ new bus shelters from BBMP

20 October 2009 - 12:41am — silkboard

Newspapers may have covered this already, but BBMP is redoing 250+ bus shelters for BMTC in the city. Several tenders were floated this month asking for:

"REMOVING EXISTING BUS SHELTER AND DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF NEW TYPE BUS SHELTER WITH KIOSK AGAINST COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENT RIGHTS ON DBOOT BASIS"

Big10 Corridor improvement - good intentions

19 October 2009 - 10:52pm — silkboard

Some good intentioned work seems to have been kicked off on the Big10 corridor this side of the city. From what I can see, the HAL Airport Road, Varthur Road Big10 corridor is seeing some upgrades towards:

BMTC best, BDA worst

19 October 2009 - 8:13pm — silkboard

Sorry for that catchy headline there. But we, a bunch of nobodies, group of mostly no-namers, have tried reaching out to various local bodies in Bangalore over past year for few things here and there. We have also seen and heard about other citizen's (may or may not be Praja members) attempts at connecting with city's local bodies.

Road width over pavement - Marathahalli example

19 October 2009 - 10:35am — silkboard

First of all, credits to BDA or BBMP or ABIDe (who knows!?) or whoever is thinking about bus interchange points like Marathahalli ring Road and improving the pedestrian amenities there. So yes, something is better than nothing. However, if you watch the work, uncalled for and unscietific preference to road width over pavement is visible. Sample some pictures.

No takers for Karnataka Roads PPP - what happened?

1 October 2009 - 12:52pm — silkboard

Newspapers had reported last week, but a public notice from KRDCL today provides the confirmation.

Big10 concept - Circle Routes are here?

21 September 2009 - 9:15am — silkboard

I have been seeing these new routes marked C-1 (for Circle 1 ?) for a few weeks now. Was waiting for some crisp annnouncement or press release, haven't noticed anything big yet, so posting.

NICE Expressway toll and receipt, taxes?

16 September 2009 - 8:46pm — silkboard

Wanted to share an observation. Usually, on getting a receipt, I take a quick glance to see if it is "proper". I am told a proper one is supposed to have a number, date, and tax id number of the business that is issuing it.

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