silkboard's blog

If you hate blogs and The Hindu for sounding so critical and negative, then you must appreciate the effort "Times Property" supplement makes at providing positive and constructive "news" on infrastructure front. I put news under quotes there because some say advertisers on that supplement ensure a positive picture is painted.

I just couldn't find a right tag for this post and even thought about whether this fits at Praja. Its about an ongoing strike impacting all of us at Bangalore. Agricultural produce traders are on a strike because they are not happy with government's recent move to allow private parties to buy produce directly from farmers. Wait, don't run away, I am not going to talk about geeky stuff like APMC act, organized retail, their impacts and such.

Did you know that Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has an online RTI system to accept queries for information? Select who you want to ask, what you want to know, your details and it should give you a registration number. Then, use this registration number to check status of your query. I am guessing that the usual RTI query deadline of 30 days will apply, so you should get responses.

GHMC's equivalent for Bengaluru, BBMP doesn't have such a system. But don't be disappointed, it may be on its way. Recently, a note appeared on BBMP's RTI page that says such a system is being deployed. Pretty good. But hang on, BBMP hasn't set good precedents on online interaction front.

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.

[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:

These days, when facing opposition over satellite town SEZ plans from Congress(I), HDK frequently refers to the "Rs 10/acre/year" giveaway offered to NICE for BMIC project. And the funny thing is that it was HDK's father Mr Deve Gowda who signed the MoU for this project back in 1995 (Source - NICE page. Does anyone know if he was a signatory to the Rs 10/acre/year deal as well?)

Yep, the project has been controversial. Surf around on the web and you find a mix of negative voices (ESG, Indiatogether) and some positive notes though far (BusinessWeek, Sep 2005 - what do they know!?) and few (Indian Express, Oct 2005). Not knowledgeable enough yet to take a side myself, but I notice that this project might be losing a bit of its relevance.

Did you notice how quick this Nandagudi SEZ thing is moving!? After state government's nod over a month ago, It got central government's clearance last week. HDK is all for the project and has been defending it no end.

Now, head a bit south-west to Bidadi. Apparently this huge integrated township project got a poor response. DLF is the only one left biding for Bidadi Integrated Township Project (BITP) now.