Blogs

Amid protests and dharna from the opposition Congress and the JD(S), the Legislative Assembly on Friday adopted the Azim Premji University Bill, 2010, thus paving the way for the state’s first private university aimed at improving the quality of primary and higher education by providing training to teachers. The Alliance University Bill, 2010, another private university Bill, was also passed in the Assembly.

Both the Bills were adopted through the voice vote as the opposition parties staged a dharna in the well of the House, insisting on a joint select committee (JSC) of the house for a thorough deliberation on the Bill before getting it passed by the legislature. Opposition leader in the Assembly expressed fears that the passage of the Bill would open the floodgate for private universities in the absence of any set of regulations to govern them. Instead of placing a Bill for an individual university, the government should bring in a comprehensive private university Bill while listing out elaborate guidelines, they demanded.

Believe it or not, Hosur Road Flyover witnessed multiple vehicle accidents at least 2 times involving 4 or more vehicles. Few accidents even caused damage to median, any one can see it clearly. 2 Fatal accidents have also occured. Pity ! - A local "breaking news" channel did not get these news, while they get news within minutes from any part of city. I suspect their mouth was shut by "Kaibisi"(Some offer) . When I drove I felt like driving in tunnel, not comfortable. I saw average speed of 90+Km when I drew. Ironically during a test of VMS(variable message system) it read "All is well. Drive slowly" !!!

Now I am scared to drive even below flyover in regular road, as I heard of an accident where a biker flew above side-guards and fell below onto road( and died of course). I always drive exactly below the flyover(rightmost lane) to be safe from falling objects, call me whatever..

To BETL : All the best for your toll collection which is going to start  "soon" (Soon - Answer I got when I asked some people at toll. No dates, no certainity) . Make sure your customers reach other end for sure.

Naveen presented a good summary of his meeting with BMRCL

One thing that came of that was the DPR for the phase II was in the final stages and would be out soon..there are already questions on

Faced with accumulated losses of Rs 7,200 crore, national carrier Air India's deteriorating condition has forced the government to push for privatisation of the carrier. While the UPA government does not favour strategic sale, the civil aviation ministry and the Air India management are likely to consider a piecemeal approach to privatisation.

"Fixing the Great Mistake" is a new Streetfilms series that examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today.

Today's BS carries this item on a proposed Global Financial District, to cater to banking & financial sector. This 200 Acre plan, located near BIAL is expected to use PPP or JV Model for development.

I am not a fan of skywalks (prefer regular ped-signals, or underpass), but the chaos that this place is - Outer Ring Road/Old Madras Road junction near Tin Factory, K R Puram - a pedestrian skywalk to cross 8 lanes of thick traffic should help. After our last round of complaints etc, the pedestrian signals had been operating for some time, they still are - either the light turns red, or cops stop traffic to let pedestrians cross. The skywalk (such a late arrival) is perhaps part of signal-free ORR project.