Blogs

Everyone, even FM P. Chidambaram seems to know that when the BIAL airport will finally be ready, it wont be accessible easily. There is practicaly no high-capacity road or rail link to connect the city to the airport. Thats the reason he asked the state Govt. to expedite the work on the connectivity and get the roads ready by next 9 months.

Very short post this one. ToI (Saturday, Aug 4) had carried an interview of the CM-in-waiting Mr Yediyurappa, and I found this answer very interesting:

TOI: Were you consulted on the change in government’s policy on BMIC?

We had recently heard about BMRC trying to finalise the bids for Mono project. But surprisingly BMRC realised that Mono will be too much to handle with its plate already being full with Metro. It has hence submitted a plea to Govt. asking the Mono to be handled by some other agency. Looks like the Gove will oblige.

Can lane discipline really reduce traffic jams? Are lanes of any use? Given how things are, not as they are designed, and not unless they put some thought to it.

Some students of the Mallya Aditi International School, Bangalore are taking lead and organizing a candle light vigil on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 6:30 p.m to save the Hebbal Lake. All you need to bring is candles and sense of care to save the lake.

[Background: Home to thousands of birds and source of livelihood to hundreds of people, the Hebbal Lake, is set to make way for a floating restaurant and other recreational activities all in the name of preservation. Some say this recreational center violates zoning regulations. Before that, is privatization of Bangalore's lakes the only route available to LDA for preserving them?]

Srivathsa mailed in this report from his drive to Devenahalli yesterday:

"Drove yesterday to Devanahalli on some other work. The road after Hebbal flyover is in pretty good shape. There are no real bottlenecks there - but a number of potential accident zones. The real bottlenecks are at Cauvery theatre, then the stretch along UAS or just before that. Very narrow roads with a number of right turns and intersections. Some serious de-bottlenecking needs to be done along this stretch.

Once past Hebbal - a grade separator is needed at the entry to yelahanka town. Of course a really bad accident will probably have to happen before something gets done. Then along the way there are a number of intersections where grade separators as well as pedestrian overpasses are needed. They also need to plan some elevated U-turns.

Came to know today that state government has created a post to keep tabs on BMIC. Neither the tone of the news piece nor the situation suggests the move is to speed track any decisions on the project. Perhaps it is more to watch over babus like Mr Sridhara who was pulled up recently for transferring KIADB land to NICE.

[Updated July 28] Construction work is on for the other half of the railway bridge. 3 new lanes opened in March, but how long before we get the new 3 lanes? I am guessing about 3 more months. Earth filling work is complete on east side, and is currently on from ORR side. The old bridge is all but gone, and its replacement is making a slow progress.

That area, literally a war zone for sometime now with construction in sight everywhere, has been an interesting picture of contrast over last year. While the bridge has been moving at its sarkaari pace, those big apartment complexes have added floor after floors! What happens when all those apartments - at least 2000-2500 units waiting for movers there - go live!? I am told they planned for this very predictable chaos. How exactly, I don't know. But there are some possible ways to deal with this: