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NICE comparison!

Infrastructure

 There was a recent comparison of the UP state Yamuna expressway and BMIC by the editor of Vijaya Karnataka news paper..

This by-far looks a neutral review/comparison of the projects. The salient points are as below:

 

BMIC

Yamuna Expressway

Location

Bangalore-Mysore

Noida-Agra

Should'nt city editors have critical eye ?

Urban DevelopmentGovernance

Here is what the editor of a city news paper says about metro and mono etc -

Another piece of good news. Apart from Metro rail, work on which has picked up speed, Bangalore will soon have a mono rail, acting as feeder service to the Metro, and a high speed rail to link the city to international airport. A global city like Bangalore needs such rapid transport systems. Its narrow roads can’t handle the increasing vehicular traffic. The number of twowheelers and autorickshaws will come down drastically once the Metro rail starts functioning. Many may stop using personal cars. You can reach your destination in no time, that too in the cozy comforts of air-conditioned coaches. No dust, no noise, no sweat. Mono rail will help you reach Metro stations in similar comfort. And you can say goodbye to parking problems.

I have pasted the link to the article in the epaper at the end of the mail. Read the times of india bangalore city edition - may 2, pg 5.

RWH compliance in BBMP ward # 58

Water

 Smt Sumitra Vijaykumar is our corporater for Ward # 58. The newly formed ward # 58 has the old ward 74 area including 9th main HAL III stage, where our house # 1669 is situated. Smt Sumitra is proactively working for the designated ward. She has organized a regular monthly meeting with the ward residents to take forward the well being of the ward as a whole. 

Mr. Vijay Kumar the corporater’s husband kindly accepted my request for a discussion on compliance of RWH by residents in ward 58. I found Sri Vijaykumar genuinely receptive to problems faced by us residents. 

I apprised Mr. Vijaykumar of what I have implemented at my house towards using the entire rainfall received at my 60x40 site for ground water charging, using a pre existing well. He inspected my premises in detail along with his gang. All were appraised in detail of what was done at my place. 

My actual agenda was in fact extending the RWH clause to BBMP. Mr. Vijaykumar was quick to see my point. Here is what I tried to explain:- 

Mr Praveen Sood, can we do a Monthly Enforcement Day?

EnforcementTraffic

On the lines of Bus Day, where citizen groups and volunteers support BMTC in executing a real on-ground event, will Bengaluru Traffic Police be game to lead us for a "Traffic Enforcement Day"?

In theory, BMTC should treat every day as Bus Day, and traffic police every day as enforcement day. But we know the realities. But then, what could be special in this once a month event? Some possibilities would be:

Minutes of a SCEP Meeting on “Global warming”

Environment

 We have a weekly SCEP (Senior Citizen Enrichment Program) meeting on every Wednesday at 4:30 PM at Mother Tree a beautiful place provided by one of our SCEP members We were about 20 senior citizens at this meeting to day. It was a very hot evening and the welcome rain was the saving grace. 

The speaker of the day was Ms Arun Shivasaran a young and upcoming Architect of repute. 

The speaker started the talk on a poignant note of alluding to the commonly used greeting when we meet viz “how are you” meaning how is your health. Now it is high time we talk about global warming instead. For Architects it is now common to grade Silver gold and platinum standards based on Global warming compliance. 

Building bye laws

Urban DevelopmentGovernance

 The comprehensive Building bye laws of 2003 available as a pdf document  is impressive which tries to set the rules in a professional way for preserving heritage Bangalore. However the BJP government thought in its wisdom that it is very stringent and some minor deviations are in the public interest. I built my house in 1986 fully complaint to the set backs specified, and some thing more than specified and built a duplex building exclusively for one family. However I built a toilet at a corner outside which was not as per the rule book. However such akramas are now Sakrama. This according to me is a step in the forward direction. 

Bangalore Water Index - Project Proposal to the BWSSB

Water

Folks,

Attached here is the project proposal we plan to go to the BWSSB with. Most of it is similar to Pranav's ppt, with a couple of edits - thanks for taking the lead on this, Pranav!

Have a look, and let us know what you think. Also - the parameters are not part of the presentation. That list will be enclosed separately.

Cheers,

Neha

"Water and a City" - discussions following the screening

Water

The movie brought out the scenario fairly well, but which most on Praja are quite aware of.

During the discussions that followed, I brought up the matter of the reported 40% odd losses, largely on account of the inefficiencies/ mismanagement in distribution (compared to less than 10% in an efficient system), and followed it up with a suggestion "if the kind of contract entered into between Mysore City Corporation and JUSCO, was not the way to address the issue?".

Prof Mohan Kumar (Civil Engg Dept, IISc) responded saying a study/ survey had been conducted by L&T and Anglian Waters (or, one of the other foreign players - I am not quite sure which) a few years back covering some parts of Bangalore (I thought I heard the name Fraser Town mentioned) at a cost of Rs 32 crores - did he mention World Bank funded?. He did not mention if any work was actually undertaken. But, went on to add that it raised all kinds of technical issues, like "how do you replace the pipes in an area like Avenue road, etc?"

Meeting with Prof. Mohan Kumar

Water

Prof. Mohan Kumar, http://cistup.iisc.ernet...., Civil Engineering Dept., IISc

Participants: Shekhar Mittal, Deepak Rajanna, Manjari Vishnoi

The agenda of this meeting was to share the vision and approach of the Praja Water Index project with Prof. Mohan and to get his feedback and guidance. The feedback from Prof. Mohan was as follows

Raison d'être for continuance of the Public Sector

Economy

Is this why they won’t disinvest Air India, kept afloat at massive expense to the taxpayer? In a violation of DGCA rules, an AI aircraft was pulled out of a scheduled flight from Delhi to Coimbatore in order to ferry IPL players, apparently at the behest of aviation minister Praful Patel’s daughter Poorna. It appears the public sector airline fulfils the private and nepotistic purposes of public servants.

For the full report in the TOI, click here.

Isn't this also why the government persists with BMTC/ KSRTC (check this), BESCOM, etc, so that they can further the interests of the Poorna Patels of this world? - all in the name of Socialism; the tax payer be damned.

Muralidhar Rao



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