Book of Projects

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[Note: A "Project" feature was introduced in late 2009 where in initiatives undertaken by Praja members can get a separate dedicated section on the website. All projects since then have been using that feature instead of this "Project of Books" approach. (Also see: list of projects)]

At Praja, believe in tracking public works and local government bodies. Our objective is to track and ask and suggest, and do that at the right levels within the public service providers. Discussions serve the tracking purpose to some extent. But at times, enthusiastic members would want to do more focused work involving on-ground activities like RTIs and direct meetings. It is recommended that all such activity, referred to as Praja Projects, be maintained inside this book. If you are starting on a project, just create a page for it under this book. Simple, and as free-form and loosely structured as it can get.

Remember, our philosophy is not to go clean the streets ourselves, but to understand why the authority responsible is unable to perform the job. Asking, tracking, demanding (in knowledgeable ways, and not in blind slogan shouting fashion) is what we want to do more of. However, many members do believe in "let me do it myself" mode projects, and we are all free to run those types of projects as well.

Just put it all inside this book, that's all.

Each project page should mention at least the following:

There are multiple ways of providing updates on projects, three to be precise

If anything here sounds confusing, contact site admins for technical help.

BIAL RTI Project

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Late in 2008, several Praja members got together to file a series of RTI (Right to Information) applications to get information about Bangalore International Airport project executed by BIAL. The objectives were to find out how some decisions about the airport were made, when they were made, and the changes seen by concession agreement or land use plans. The project created some interest in local media about the past details of BIAL project, and timings of these RTIs happen to coincided with some official government legislatures driven probes into this marquee PPP (Public Private Partnership) project.

Air Traffic Numbers from AAI for HAL Airport!

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Below given are the official numbers for Air Traffic at HAL prior to BIAL opening in May, 2008. These numbers were provided officially by AAI in response to one of the early RTI applications filed in May, 2008.

Interesting that, a country, a city which provides Software and Information Tech services to the entire world doesn't uses for its own use. Please note that AAI seems to have not maintained the air traffic data in electronic form prior to 2001.

Our GOK departments are no better than GOI offices. This is the same story all across. Recently it was reported that Motor Vehicle department (RTO) offices have not centralized their database, i.e. each office maintains its own DB. We have a long way to go before we make use of the skills we have acquired in past decades.

Here are the excerpts from AAI response to an RTI application:
1.Currently at HAL airport, as of April 30, 2008,

a)How many flights land and take off per hour during peak hours 6am - 10am and 6pm - 8pm?

In a day between – 6am - l0 am
Arrival / Departure / Total Movements - 41 / 37 /78

In a day between - 6Pm - 8 Pm.
Arrival / Departure/ Total Movements - 29 / 22 / 51

b)How many passengers per hour during peak hours 6am - 10am and 6pm - 8pm?

No record for hourly basis movement of passengers is maintained. As such the data is not available.

c)How many flights land and take off per day?
No. of Aircraft per day Arrival / Departure - 165 (Average) / 165 (Average)

d)How many passengers per day?

Arrivals - 15381(Average) / Departure - l2805 (Average)

e)How many flights a year?
Arrival / Departure / Total - 59495 / 42260 / 101755

f)How many passengers per year?

For the period April2OO7 to March 2008 Arrival / Departure / Total 5514065/ 4673825 /10287890 (App.1 0.3 mn)

g)How many tons of cargo per year?
Loaded in tons / unloaded in tons / total 87235 / 87965 / 175200

2.What was the growth on yearly basis for international and domestic traffic w.r.t flights per days, passengers and freight, since 1995?

The yearly passenger traffic growth during 200l-2008 is enclosed. The data before 2001 is not readily available.

3.How much revenue from all sources is earned during the year 2007 (From January to December)?
The revenue earned by AAI during the period April 2007 to March 2008 is Rs.245.90 crores. This includes RNFC/TNLC/PSF and Commercial Revenue only. This does not include landing/parking/ground handling and Cargo Revenue which have been collected by HAL and MSIL. The figures are not known to AAI Bangalore.

4. What is the average revenue earned per passenger from all sources?

No such data available

5.What are the revenues for each year since 1995?

Following information is readily available.
2004- 2005 Rs.97.9 4 crores.
2005- 2006 Rs.153.44 crores.
2006 - 2007 Rs. 2l I .l 5 crores.
2OO7 - 2008 Rs.245.90 crores

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HAL Traffic - RTI.gif251.19 KB

BIAL Capacity Assesment Report from AAI!

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Praja members,

Another RTI response to share with. A Praja member had filed an RTI application with Ministry of Civil Aviation for obtaining a copy of the Capacity assessment of Bangalore's new International airport(BIAL). The capacity assessment was done by AAI from June 16-18, 2008.

Here is the summary of the AAI's report on BIAL's capacity after its opening in May 2008. Prajagale, please feel free to go thru the summary as well as detailed report and draw your own inferences. We have one request that, you do post your feedback and evlauation of this report.

 

  Full report

 

Moc A Response 1
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Exec-Summary_Page_1.GIF187.43 KB
Exec-Summary_Page_2.GIF163.88 KB

BIAL RTI - Airport Development Overview

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Aviation
Following is the overview of the airport development history.

Praja thanks Mr Nagesh, DyGM KSIIDC for having taken the pains to write this document exclusively for us.

Airport Development Overview
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BIAL RTI - MOU between AAI & KSIIDC and Land Lease Agreement

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Aviation
In response to the RTI applications filled with KSIIDC, there was a meeting between Mr Nagaraj, DGM, KSIIDC and a couple of Praja members. The meeting was a very cordial one and Mr Nagesh apart from giving us the requested documents also shared with us his views on the development of BIAL. He also shared with us his view about Hyderabad airport in comparison with BIAL (he had just returned from a tour of Hyderabad airport).

Following is a copy of the MOU signed between AAI and GOK on 3rd May, 1999 and the Land Lease agreement. A few other pending documents will be dispatched by KSIIDC this week.

The Land Lease agreement does provide some supporting evidence to the article published by Devesh http://bangalore.praja.in... regarding forest land being part of the airport area.

Copy of the MOU between AAI and GOK
Memorandum Of Understanding
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Copy of the Land Lease Agreement
Land Lease Agreement
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BIAL RTI - State Support Agreement

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Aviation

Govt of Karnataka State Support Agreement for the Bengaluru International Airport.

The following documents were requested from the Office of The Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka. The request was forwarded to KSIIDC which is the nodal agency for all BIAL related issues. The document was collected from KIIDC on 29th Nov, 2008.


Following is the copy of the State Support Agreement signed between GOK and BIAL on 20th January 2005

BIAL State Support Agreement
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Following is the copy of the Amendment to the State Support agreement signed on 2nd June, 2005 between GoK and BIAL

Amendment To State Support Agreement
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BIAL RTI - Steering Committee Meeting Proceedings

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Aviation

The Steering committee proceedings documents were provided by KSIIDC after the meeting between Praja members and Mr. Nagesh DyGM, KSIIDC on 13th Dec 2008.  The documents were obtained from KSIIDC on the 2nd of January.


Steering Committee Proceedings (Meetings 01-10)

Steering 01 10
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Steering Committee Proceedings (Meetings 11-17)

Steering 11 17
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A note on the development of Bangalore Airport prepared by Mr Nagesh and original RPF document will posted shortly.

BIAL RTI Update from AAI !

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One of our Praja community member had filed couple of RTI's with AAI requesting below listed information:

  1. Current Status of HAL airport following the opening of BIAL
  2. Basis and approval details for Closure of the HAL airport.

Even after 3 months of filing this application, AAI did not respond to the request. Subsequently, the member followed up with the AAI, basically reminding AAI that they need to respond. In response to this reminder, AAI finally sent the below given letters with a excuse that due to the shortage of manpower they could not process the request on time. As per the letter, they have promised to provide the information ASAP.

 It has been little disappointing but sometimes we don't have any alternative except for patience.

 

 

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aai_02.pdf234.29 KB

RTI application to AAI about HIAL

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Guys,

Below is the content of an RTI application which I would be submitting to AAI for the information on process / facts on ATC operationalization at HIAL. That would give an idea whether BIAL lived upto the requirements or not. Also I would be submitting a separate application for BIAL.

Please feel free to use as is.

------------------------------------------------------

To: Shri P. Premnath,

General Manager and PIO (RTI)

Corporate Headquarter

Airport Authority of India

Room # 331, 3rd Floor,

R G Bahwan

Safdarjung Airport

New Delhi - 110003

Date: March 212008

Sub: Information regarding the clearance and operation of ATC at new international airport of Hyderabad at Shamshabad location.

Dear Sir,

In few days, the new international airport at Hyderabad city is going to be functional commercially. It is indeed a good news and beginning of a new chapter in civil aviation in India. It has come to my attention thru the news media that there are discrepancies in requirements that were applied for operationalising of the Air Traffic Control centers at new airport in Hyderabad. In this respect, I would like to use the Right to Information Act to ascertain the following w.r.t New International Airport in Hyerdabad at Shamshabad location:

  1. What is the shareholding percentage of the AAI in new airport project of Hyderabad?
  2. What is the role of AAI in the new airport?
  3. Who will man the ATC in terms of AAI employees or private contractors?
  4. What was involvement of AAI in design, construction and approval of ATC buildings and infrastructure?
  5. Are there any standards and requirements for ATC facilities in terms of square footage, Lifts/elevators, No. of toilets, dormitory etc?
  6. If yes, did the new airport comply with all the standards and requirements?
  7. How many times did the AAI inspect the new airport facilities including ATC buildings during and after completion of construction?
  8. Did AAI give any written approval to the new airport indicating that the facilities confirm to the AAI requirements?
  9. When did the project executor GMR hand over the ATC building to AAI?
  10. Who was responsible for procurement, installation, testing, calibration and final approval for commercial use of ATC equipments and accessories?
  11. When were the orders for ATC equipment placed and when were they received at the site?
  12. Who was involved in the installation of above said equipment?
  13. When did the installation of above said equipment start and when was it completed?
  14. Does the new airport have enough controllers who are “rated”? How many?
  15. When did the ATC controllers get recruited/transferred to new airport location?
  16. When did they start training and when did all of them get “Rated” at the new airport?
  17. In absence of air traffic at Shamshabad airport, how did the ATC controllers get trained? Did they use any simulators?
  18. If answer to the above question is yes, how many hours/days did they they get trained on the simulator before they were certified/rated for operation.
  19. Are there any standards and requirements for training on simulators in terms of minimum hours / days for the ATC controllers?
  20. Are there any standards and requirements for “Hot-Standby” process for Communication, Navigation and Surveillance-Air Traffic Management (ATM-CNS) system? If so what are they?
  21. When did the process of “Hot-Standby” for ATM-CNS system period get started at new airport?
  22. When did the above said process get completed?
  23. When did the ATM-CNS get fully operationalised?

A detailed answer to each of the question would be highly appreciated and would help ordinary people like me to discount any fears or apprehension of any compromises in Aviation security and safety of airline passengers by AAI.

I request you to kindly look into this matter. Thank you in advance for your co-operation.

Thanking you and I remain,

Yours Sincerely,

<Your Name>

<Your Address>


BMTC - tracking and interaction

[Update: Sep 09: The project has been moved to the new system - BMTC engagement project. We will use this book to organize information we dig out from BMTC at one place]

Those who think they know BMTC well, tell us this. How do they plan new bus routes? How do they actually make a profit? How often do they undertake routing and deployment reforms? How do they get help from BBMP and Traffic Police - any agreement based approach?

This project will track BMTC's operation in greater details. Idea is to understand their operations and cost structure, their profit and loss statements and their initiatives in greater details. Information about BMTC can be gathered via emails or meetings with BMTC, and if needed, via RTIs.

Key contacts

BMTC - focus areas and recent initiatives

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Folks,

Taking things forward from our last Praja meet and to brain storm and plan activities on tracking BMTC initiatives, here's my bit to get things started on a few things that deserve note.

1. Big-10 and HOHO services - scalability and scope for improvements.
 

Taking cues from ABIDE, BMTC has started  gearing up to run “Big 10 Road Services”  on trunk roads and “Kendra Saarige” in Central Business District (CBD). We have started to witness good numbers building up on two of the Big-10 routes  currently operational Trinity - Whitefield and Vellara - E City. Banneragatta Road Big-10 operations starting Monday would have built up as we speak.

The Blue Lines and the Yellow lines meant to be providing auxilliary services to the Big-10s for transporting commuters to various points in the CBD. There have been posts questioning the handling of each of these services in unision, how a synchronised service of a Big-10 feeding a KS and vice versa. There is a need to track this pilot project, bring to light the loopholes and get some quick wins to expand these services across the city.


2. BMTC Fleet expansion plans

BMTC's take on recommendations by ABIDE towards fleet expansion. There is a need to seek data about routes where there is a need to get more buses to be running. Considerations regarding optimizing the existing fleet without expansion, by effective time management and synchronizing schedules to meet the growing demands in the city. Acertainly viable option over the former.

3. Organised Bus bays and efficient TTMCs

Follow up on BMTC plans to introduce TTMC’s at 45 various locations in Bangalore. We have seen the Shantinagar TTMC operational for quite a while now and how has the  public response been this far. A survey might be of help.  Have we been able to  meet the expecations of the rationale behind launching such TTMCs - this might give impetus to driving similar projects across various other parts in the city as   planned. Use of BMTC branded small vehicles to tackle last mile connectivity issues - a well debated topic on this forum.

As per a Hindu report, The Traffic Engineering Cell (TEC) of the BBMP has taken up construction of the bays and has invited tenders for 100 bus bays out of 140 proposed by the BMTC. There has been some evident work under progress ahead of KR circle on Nripatunga Road. It is paramount for the BBMP-BMTC to work together overcoming the inter urban planning authority issues we have faced in the past to get these projects running and help them achieve results.

4. Fleet crew compensation models

Ticket sales based compensation for fleet crew in BMTC. Scope for remodelling the remunetration for the crew - Scope for improvements?

Could we get people involved in debating the compensation models practised in BMTC for its fleet crew. At hind sight it looks like the crew focus more on ticket sales per trip on any specific route rather than on the timing their travel. This results in a slowdown in frequency of operations, buses not being available at expected arrival times and add up to traffic congestion.
   
5. BMTC Routing and Timing mechanisms

Restructuring the existing fleet routing schedules uniformly for both peak and non peak hour travel and implementing the most suggested Direction over Destination strategy. This if found successful could also address the fleet expansion issues.
Improved user reliability is a direct factor of improved availability and streamlining of services. The 335E/333P (KBS-ITPL), 356C/356N(KBS-E City) volvo routes are good examples to this account. The 319C (KBS-OMR-ITPL) though, proved to be a disaster due to dwindling commuter numbers.


6. Rail Vajras - an option to consider?

The Vayu Vajras after having got off to a slow start have become quite popular amongst the flying community today.
There have been discussions held on the forum here to suggest BMTC to expand such services to the rail travellers as well. The Bangalore City Railway Station, Yeshwantpur and Cantonment serving as major junctions provide a good opportunity for the BMTC to run dedicated services from different parts of the city, modalities of the same could be discussed before taking this proposal forward. And if estimated figures were to be right, around 40,000 commuters per day is remarkably good to convince the authorities of revenue generation related concerns if any.

7. BMTC Advertising strategies

We have off late been seeing BIG Street operated bus shelters across almost all parts of the city. As per a recent report, BIG STREET a division of Reliance ADAG, the company specializing in the OOH (Out of Home) media business in an attempt to expand its reach, has taken the ‘Street Furniture’ route by activating 172 hi-tech bus shelters in Bangalore.
BMTC provides Bus side panels and back panels for putting advertisement by the interested companies/organisations. We have seen this on out Vajras and Suvarnas and specific details have also been put up on the BMTC website.
It would be interesting to get first hand information on the advertising models practised at BMTC and their future plans to improvise on them.

BMTC Meeting Presentation and Minutes

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BusPublic Transport

We had a meeting with the CTM(O) of BMTC, the first half a presentation was presented by Praja (attached below)

There were a couple of topics discussed ranging from how to publicize BMTC to feeder minibusses.

A list of suggestions was also given to BMTC. The list of suggestion has been put up in a different

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Essence of BMTC Discussions on Praja-V3-(Includes co-ordinatition slide).ppt981.5 KB

BMTC Meeting Update - Need innovative ideas!

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BusPublic Transport

Today, a small team of Praja members interacted with Traffic Team at BMTC headed by the CTM(O). Following are the minutes of the meeting:

The agenda was to look at ways to popularize and increase the ridership of the Volvo services. A two way approach was suggested -

  • To provide quality information to the current users
  • Encourage private vehicle users to switch to Volvo services (attract new customers)

Some of the suggestions were -

  1. To upgrade/update the BMTC website.
  2. Provide a section dedicated to Volvo services, detailing all the routes and time schedules.
  3. Use of "Moving Maps" to dynamically map buses on to maps - once all buses are fitted with GPS tracking devices.
  4. Re-introduction of YelliEdira service.
  5. Use FM radio to popularize services - organize weekly/daily contests based on Volvo routes.
  6. Advertising campaigns at major IT hubs/companies - MG road/Electronic City/Whitefield (Will need the help of Praja members to help co-ordinate these campaigns).
  7. Putting up Volvo bus fares/routes and time tables at all bus stands.
  8. Once BMTC volvo website is updated, an email campaign would be started. Assistance from civic groups like Hasiru Husiru, CAF and others along with Praja will be needed to spread the reach.
  9. Actively sort feedback from customers and work on them.

Feedback collection mechanisms that were suggested -

  1. Phone based feedback (a dedicated line to be operated by BMTC to record customer feedback - could be an automated recording system).
  2. SMS based feedback (customers can send SMS to specified numbers with suggestions). In both Phone based and SMS based solutions, the contact numbers could be widely advertised within the buses for easy accessibility.
  3. Feedback forms asking specific questions within Volvo buses and popular malls (discount coupons could be provided to encourage people to use the forms).
  4.  Feedback section on BMTC website.

Other Miscellaneous issues that were discussed at the meeting -

  1. Kendra Sarige (HOHO) service routes have been changed - updated routes to be put up on BMTC site shortly.
  2. Introduction of high parking fee to discourage use of private vehicles.
  3. Need for congestion taxes and dedicated bus lanes.
  4. Fleet expansion (currently there are 310 Volvo buses, 200 more will be inducted in the next one year).
  5. Need for BMLTA.
  6. Delays in the formulation of BMLTA act.
  7. Inter department co-ordination problems - between BBMP and BMTC.
  8. BBMP owns all bus shelters in Bangalore. Though BMTC has requested for more than 3000 bus stands, BBMP is progressing very slowly. New bus stands are being introduced only in high visibility locations (advertising benefits) and others areas are being ignored by BBMP.
  9. The advertising rights in bus shelters completely owned by BBMP. Though a plan was put forward to BMTC to display live real time bus schedules/arrival times on LED/LCD panels at bus stands, the plan had to be shelved because, BMTC didnt have the rights to display such panels at the bus stands.

What BMTC expects from the general public and Praja -

  1. General ideas on how to popularize public transport in general and Volvo services in particular.
  2. How to encourage non IT crowd to use Volvo services.
  3. Better ideas for advertising - please add on to the above suggestions.
  4. Help in advertising campaigns (will need coordinator to at large companies and IT parks to facilitate campaigns).
  5. Ideas on Map based passenger information systems.
  6. Feedback on routes - route rationalization and costing are important issues that they are looking into, but their current priority is to increase ridership and make the service self sustaining.
  7. Public pressure on BBMP to allocate advertising real estate at bus stops to BMTC and for construction of bus stands and bus bays.

Praja members please put on your thinking caps and suggest ideas to popularize Volvo services and increase their ridership. The next task would be to engage in route ratinalization and costing (but these are secondary at the moment).

BBMP engagement managers please raise the BBMP specific issues listed about with the BBMP authorities.

Hence forth such meeting will be announced publicly on Praja and anyone interested can join. Due to lack of time and co-ordination issues the meeting was a closed one.

BMTC info

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Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation

TYPE OF SERVICES

As on 28-5-2009

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sl No.    Type of Services      No. of sch's             % age

------------------------------------------------------------------------------         

1    Ordinary services                 3324                      62.06         

2    Vajra (Volvo)  services         251                        4.69         

3    Vayu Vajra Service                58                          1.08         

4    Mahila Special                       12                          0.22         

5    Pass Special                          88                         1.64         

6    Hospital special services    3                            0.06         

7    Mall special services            1                            0.02         

8    Bangalore Rounds               2                            0.04         

9    Pushpak                                154                         2.88         

10    Suvarna Services               320                        5.97         

11    Janapriyavahini                  164                        3.06         

12    BIG 10                                  110                        2.05         

13    Kendra Sarige                     18                          0.34         

14    Metro/Grid services            173                        3.23         

15    Trunk Services                     57                         1.06         

16    Moffusil Services                 54                          1.01         

17    Night Services                      86                         1.61         

18    Late Night Services             25                         0.47         

19    Mini + AC Mini                       141                       2.63         

20    Feeder Services                  44                          0.82         

21    ORR schedules                  220                        4.11         

22    Chartered Services             51                          0.95         

                                       TOTAL    5356              

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Total Sch Kms per day    1255437.2              

    Total Sch trips per day    73,468              


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------     

 Category of services    BMTC        PVT        Total        %

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Shift                               1019        0        1019        19.03

  Night out                      2432        24        2456        45.86

  General Shift               1865        16        1881        35.12

  Total                             5316        40        5356        100

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

-----------------------------------------------------------  

 Type of services              Total    %    Routes

 ----------------------------------------------------------

 City Services                1503    28.06    528    

 Sub urban Services    3853    71.94    1430    

 Total                                5356    100    1958    

 -----------------------------------------------------------

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------     

 Kms                                            Total Kms    % age

 -------------------------------------------------------------------         

  City                                            262078.5    20.88         

  Suburban                                 911823.3    72.63         

  Pushpak + JPV (City+Sub)    70853.0        5.64         

  Private (City+Sub)                    10682.4        0.85         

  TOTAL                                     1255437.2    100.00

 --------------------------------------------------------------------         

 

     

 

ABSTRACT    

 

----------------------------------------------------------    

 Type of Service          Sch's    Kms      Trips    

 -----------------------------------------------------------

  Vayu Varja                   58    24601.5      590    

  Volvo schedules      252    51854.3      2309    

  Total                           310    76455.8      2899    

                     

  BIG 10                        110    23773.1      1305    

  Kendra Sarige             18    2431.8         135    

 -----------------------------------------------------------     

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

                                    D/O    N/O       G/S         Sch's

-----------------------------------------------------------------

BMTC over all        1016    2455       1870     5341

% age                     19.02    45.97    35.012    100

excluding Ordinary  976    2075       1257    4308

% age                     22.66    48.17      29.18    100

-----------------------------------------------------------------     

 

 

List of questions For BMTC project

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Before taking the BMTC project forward we should have a list of queries ready. A list of questions for BMTC RTIs are given below.  Lets finalize the list and get going.


Query Why do we need this data? Filed By Filed On Comments
A. Fleet Details - General
A.1 Total number of Buses that are currently under operation        5441
A.2 Total Number of buses that are used for regular schedule        
A.3 Total number of buses available and used for non-regular schedule like daily contract to private companies, special Sevices, etc.        
A.4 What are the different Categories of buses operated by BATCH (Vera, Pushpin…)?       Pushpak
Parisara Vahini
Vayuvajra and Survarna
Curitiba
Red Board
Black Board
A.5 Number of buses in each of these categories?        
A.6 Total number of buses tracked by GPS systems.        
A.7 Average age of buses (category wise)        
A.8 Average running cost (category wise).        
A.9 Average mileage of the vehicles (category wise).        
A.10 Monthly wise fuel expenditure for the last 24 months.        
           
B. Fleet Details - Maintenance        
B.1 Number of buses on regular maintenance (category wise?) on daily and monthly Basis        
B.2 Average maintenance cost per Bus in each category.        
B.3 Average time taken for the maintenance of each bus        
  Average turn around time for each Bus        
B.4 Annual Budget for Maintennance        
           
C. Fleet Details - Breakdowns        
C.1 Average number of breakdowns        2153
C.2 In last 3 years, average cost of all the breakdowns        
C.3 Top 10 causes of the Breakdowns        
C.4 Average cost of each of the breakdowns        
C.5 Average Turn around time for repairs and breakdowns        
           
D. Staffing Details
           
C.1 Total number of the Employees at BMTC - Both Permanent and Temporary        20473
C.2 List of all Employee cadre with designations and number of elpmoyees in each cadre, including management personnel upto CMD.        
C.3 Total number drivers cum conductors (in some buses the driver himself issues the tickets - horrible idea - holds up the traffic unnecessarily - additional pressure on drivers).        Drivers (7489)
conductors (5775)
Driver / Conductors (3610)
Maintenance staff (2107)
administrative staff and others (1492)
           
D. Training and Safety Education        
D.1 Details of all the training programs (to whom the training program targeted, number of attendees, duration of the training) conducted for the staff during the last financial year.        
D.2 Total expenditure incurred on the bove training        
D.3 Total number of safefty awareness program or training sessions conducted in last one yearbove training        
D.4 Total expenditure incurred on the above safety awareness training session.        
D.5 Does BMTC have any process or procedure to evaluate the drivers, conductors for their physical fitness and skill set to operate the buses.        
D.6 Copy of training manual and safety instructions        
           
           
E. Revenue and Expenditure Details (including earnings from non transportation operations)
E.1 Audited balance sheet for the last financial year.        
E.2 Total Monthly revenues        
E.3 Total Monthly Expenditure        
E.4 Total revenue earned by each category of the Bus Service like VV, KS< BIG-10, ..etc        
E.5 Total # of monthly passed issued and the revenues generated from these monthly passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).        2.36 lakhs passes in total
E.6 Total # of daily passed issued and the revenues generated from these daily passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).        1.82 lakhs passes daily
E.7 Total revenues generated from advertising (on buses, in BMTC operated bus stations, etc).        
E.8 Total ridership and revenue earned on top 10 longest routes        
E.9 Total ridership and revenue earned on circular routes        
           
F. Contract Service to private companies.
F.1 Number of buses used for private company (IT Parks) transportation (Name of company/IT park, number of buses, total number of trips operated daily, number of buses deployed - category wise).        
F.2 Total number of buses that are dedicated for the Contract service to private companies.        
F.3 Total number of Regular schedule buses that are used for the Contract service to private companies.        
F.4 Most common timings during which these services are run.        
F.5 List of all the routes/areas that these service covers        
F.6 Total revenues earned from these servcies (montly wise for the last 12 months).        
F.7 Total ridership in this buses in each trip - Morning, Evening trips.        
F.8 Yearly growth in the number of buses deployed for these service over the past 5 years.        
F.9 Total number of Vayu Vajras operating.        69 Vayuvajra and Suvarna
F.10 Average monthly revenues generated from Vayu Vajra service (data for last 6 months).        
F.11 Average monthly running and mainteance cost of Vayu Vajras (data for last 6 months). What is the estimated revenue per month needed to breakeven on the Vayu Vajra services.        
           
G. Planning and Schedule        
G.1 Total number of routes operated by BMTC, parameters used while evaluating these, scope for improving the system, initiatives taken in this direction        5247 schedules
G.2 Process of adding or approving new routes.  For last ten routes added, details of the process followed along with the justification or reasons.        
G.3 Routing models practised at BMTC - Is this done in consultation with a planning body, if not how is this currently managed?        
G.4 Time management while conducting day to day operations. Are the authorities strict about adherence to schedules. If yes, how and by whom are these managed and monitored?        
G.5 Process followed for numbering new routes        
           
H. Bus Stops        
H.1 Last ten bus shelters moved or shifted by BMTC or BBMP, what were the grounds for moving them.        
H.2 What is process or procedure followed in adding a new Bus stop.        
           
I. Accidents and insurance        
  Bus to accident ratio.        No. of Accidents: 462
Rate of Accidents/Lakh Kms.: 0.15
I.1 Route to accident ratio, and the route with most accidents.        
I.2 Total amount paid by BMTC towards insurancing its buses        
I.3 Number of insurance claims filed by BMTC per month        
I.4 # of incidents in which action is taken against BMTC staff for the accidents or public complaint.        
           
J. Misscellaneous
J.1 Details of all BMTC owned/operated property lent/leased to non BMTC entities (name and address to whom the property has been lent/leased, location, area, annual rent/lease).        
J.2 Details of revenues generated from BMTC owned/operated/leased parking areas (including details of location, parking area, parking contractor, lease details).        

 

New BMTC RTI list

 

SSL. No Query Why do we need this data?   Filed By   Filed On   Comments
A. Fleet Details - General
A.1 Total number of Buses that are currently under operation              
A.2 Total Number of buses that are used for regular schedule              
A.3 Total number of buses available and used for non-regular schedule like daily contract to private companies, special Sevices, etc.              
A.4 What are the different Categories of buses operated by BATCH (Vera, Pushpin…)?              
A.5 Number of buses in each of these categories?              
A.6 Total number of buses tracked by GPS systems.              
A.7 Average age of buses (category wise)              
A.8 Average running cost (category wise).              
A.9 Average mileage of the vehicles (category wise).              
A.10 Monthly wise fuel expenditure for the last 24 months.              
                 
B. Fleet Details - Maintenance              
B.1 Number of buses on regular maintenance (category wise?) on daily and monthly Basis              
B.2 Average maintenance cost per Bus in each category.              
B.3 Average time taken for the maintenance of each bus              
  Average turn around time for each Bus              
B.4 Annual Budget for Maintennance              
                 
C. Fleet Details - Breakdowns              
C.1 Average number of breakdowns              
C.2 In last 3 years, average cost of all the breakdowns              
C.3 Top 10 causes of the Breakdowns              
C.4 Average cost of each of the breakdowns              
C.5 Average Turn around time for repairs and breakdowns              
                 
D. Staffing Details
                 
C.1 Total number of the Employees at BMTC - Both Permanent and Temporary              
C.2 List of all Employee cadre with designations and number of elpmoyees in each cadre, including management personnel upto CMD.              
C.3 Total number drivers cum conductors (in some buses the driver himself issues the tickets - horrible idea - holds up the traffic unnecessarily - additional pressure on drivers).              
                 
D. Training and Safety Education              
D.1 Details of all the training programs (to whom the training program targeted, number of attendees, duration of the training) conducted for the staff during the last financial year.              
D.2 Total expenditure incurred on the bove training              
D.3 Total number of safefty awareness program or training sessions conducted in last one yearbove training              
D.4 Total expenditure incurred on the above safety awareness training session.              
D.5 Does BMTC have any process or procedure to evaluate the drivers, conductors for their physical fitness and skill set to operate the buses.              
D.6 Copy of training manual and safety instructions              
                 
                 
E. Revenue and Expenditure Details (including earnings from non transportation operations)
E.1 Audited balance sheet for the last financial year.              
E.2 Total Monthly revenues              
E.3 Total Monthly Expenditure              
E.4 Total revenue earned by each category of the Bus Service like VV, KS< BIG-10, ..etc              
E.5 Total # of monthly passed issued and the revenues generated from these monthly passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).              
E.6 Total # of daily passed issued and the revenues generated from these daily passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).              
E.7 Total revenues generated from advertising (on buses, in BMTC operated bus stations, etc).              
E.8 Total ridership and revenue earned on top 10 longest routes              
E.9 Total ridership and revenue earned on circular routes              
                 
F. Contract Service to private companies.
F.1 Number of buses used for private company (IT Parks) transportation (Name of company/IT park, number of buses, total number of trips operated daily, number of buses deployed - category wise).              
F.2 Total number of buses that are dedicated for the Contract service to private companies.              
F.3 Total number of Regular schedule buses that are used for the Contract service to private companies.              
F.4 Most common timings during which these services are run.              
F.5 List of all the routes/areas that these service covers              
F.6 Total revenues earned from these servcies (montly wise for the last 12 months).              
F.7 Total ridership in this buses in each trip - Morning, Evening trips.              
F.8 Yearly growth in the number of buses deployed for these service over the past 5 years.              
F.9 Total number of Vayu Vajras operating.              
F.10 Average monthly revenues generated from Vayu Vajra service (data for last 6 months).              
F.11 Average monthly running and mainteance cost of Vayu Vajras (data for last 6 months). What is the estimated revenue per month needed to breakeven on the Vayu Vajra services.              
                 
G. Planning and Schedule              
G.1 Total number of routes operated by BMTC, parameters used while evaluating these, scope for improving the system, initiatives taken in this direction              
G.2 Process of adding or approving new routes.  For last ten routes added, details of the process followed along with the justification or reasons.              
G.3 Routing models practised at BMTC - Is this done in consultation with a planning body, if not how is this currently managed?              
G.4 Time management while conducting day to day operations. Are the authorities strict about adherence to schedules. If yes, how and by whom are these managed and monitored?              
G.5 Process followed for numbering new routes              
                 
H. Bus Stops              
H.1 Last ten bus shelters moved or shifted by BMTC or BBMP, what were the grounds for moving them.              
H.2 What is process or procedure followed in adding a new Bus stop.              
                 
I. Accidents and insurance              
  Bus to accident ratio.              
I.1 Route to accident ratio, and the route with most accidents.              
I.2 Total amount paid by BMTC towards insurancing its buses              
I.3 Number of insurance claims filed by BMTC per month              
I.4 # of incidents in which action is taken against BMTC staff for the accidents or public complaint.              
                 
J. Cost of Buses
J.1 Details of total# of buses purchased in the year 2008.              
J.2 Details of procurement costing for each category of the buses that are purchased. 
A. Categories of Buses that are purchased 
B. Final Cost of each Bus under each category 
C. Cost Break up of Each bus - Cost for Chassis, Body Building, Taxes and registration
             
                 
K. Misscellaneous
K.1 Details of all BMTC owned/operated property lent/leased to non BMTC entities (name and address to whom the property has been lent/leased, location, area, annual rent/lease).              
K.2 Details of revenues generated from BMTC owned/operated/leased parking areas (including details of location, parking area, parking contractor, lease details).              
                 

BWSSB - tracking and interaction

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427 users have liked.

There is a need for Bangalore citizens to get deeper into BWSSB to know their initiatives and operations. There have been several posts on the need for this tracking and interaction project, but unfortunately, not many had expressed interest. Regardless, and especially after seeing water issue topping the election survey, let the few of us get started with this.

Will shortly have an internal meeting, or a meeting with BWSSB to kick this off.

BWSSB - current projects and progress updates

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616 users have liked.
Water

From a BWSSB perspective, I found 3 critical projects that we need to track the progress of:

a. CWS – Stage 4, Phase 2. This will supply the city with additional 500 MLD and was supposed to kick off in Dec 08 (no news yet). Completion is slated for 2011. Post this, city is supposed to receive water supply on a daily basis, unlike now when it is supplied only once in 2-3 days. Progress of project needs to be tracked, but an interesting report in Deccan Herald summarises the challenges in this project. http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul302008/city2008073081782.asp

b. Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project –

Again there is very little reported in the media on GBWASP (Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project) except for the fact that Janaagraha walked out of a participation in this project in 2007. Projected completion date for this project is 2012 – it was reported that BSY government will allocate Rs 100 crore for the interim arrangements under this project, while the actual project cost is around 3400 crores. The last media report I could find mentions that water supply was not enacted for Ramamurthynagar and Pai Layout areas (as of Jan 2008), inspite of charges being paid 3 years ago. It also mentions that BWSSB engineers have been fleecing the residents by charging user contribution at 10% on the cost. That apart, engineers have been collecting Rs 2,000 for inspecting the house to levy prorata charges.

c. Integrated Water Resource Management Project – There are not many details available on this project. I went through the BWSSB official site as well as some other resources on the net on BWSSB and its functioning – there are clearly gaps in the information, and I am summarizing them below. If someone is able to provide clarity on these, it will be great: 

  • The BWSSB site last publishes the financials of BWSSB for the year 2001 – 2002. Is there any other way that we can get to know their current financials? And clearly no mention of the 3383 crores that has been obtained as loan for CWS Stage IV, Phase II
  • Nowhere in the site could I find a realistic estimate of the projected need for water supply for Bangalore city is in the next say 5 years ?
  • The trend on per capita consumption of water is again confusing – Read this from the BWSSB website: It says that in the year 2000 – 2001, the total receipt of water was around 247 million litres per day, of which only about 164 million litres was actually available for consumption (that’s about 33% as wastage)
  • Additionally, the consumption pattern of the available water supply was 53% domestic, 13% Non Domestic, and 33% was towards public fountains!!! What exactly do they mean by public fountains, does it also include parks – becos I don’t believe we have so many public fountains in Bangalore that will take up about 33% of the entire water supply of Bangalore city.

Assuming that the site was last updated in 2001 – it states that “The per capita water supply at present in Bangalore is about 100 to 125 (gross) liters per capital per day (LPCD) which is below the National Standard of 150-200 LPCD for a city of the size of Bangalore. However, the per capita availability of water for vast majority of poor people in Bangalore is only about 40-45 LPCD. With 150 LPCD as standard, the current demand is 900 MLD for a population of 6 million.However BWSSB is able to supply only about 810 MLD”.

Some latest reports in TOI however state that BWSSB is supplying about 910 MLD per day, which dips to 700 MLD / 800 MLD in summer. Clearly BWSSB does not believe in keeping its website up to date.

(However, there is another page in the same site (dubiously called “Services in urban poor”), where the population of Bangalore is stated as 60 million, but that is another matter)

Skype Meeting - Launch BWSSB/Lakes tracking project

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444 users have liked.
4 ಮೇ 2009 21:00
4 ಮೇ 2009 21:30
Asia/Calcutta
Lakes

We have waited long enough for more people to show interest and join. Let us get started. A meeting with BWSSB should happen soon. Before that, let us meet in this "quick and easy" online way to talk what we will do and list first set of tasks.

Time: Monday, 4th May, 9 PM (so that we are all back home from work)

Venue: Skype teleconference

Hope that key guys like Zenrainman and Rithesh can make it. More the merrier. Those who want to join, please leave a comment, and send me a private message with your skype id. I will initiate the conference at 9 PM on Monday

We expect BWSSB/Lakes engagement/tracking projects to involve meetings, RTIs and a few site visits.

PS: I have done Skype conf calls with upto 10 people without much problem.

 

Bangalore pedestrianization projects

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523 users have liked.

Project to push for pedestrianization of some popular stretches of roads in shopping districts of Bengaluru. We will start with Commercial Street, and then (after learning lessons etc) try Brigade Road, Jayanagar 4th block, Avenue road etc.

Goals? Make Bengaluru aware of the concept, create open air malls as alternatives to modern concrete malls. Promoting walking and pedestrian casues is important because walking is the important aspect of good public transport system which our city aspires to create.

Main tasks will be

Key contacts for this project

How can you help?

[Project created on behalf of das]

Commercial St. pedestrianization - meeting with shop owners association

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444 users have liked.
27 Apr 2009 18:00
27 Apr 2009 20:00
Asia/Calcutta

First meeting on the issue, with The Bangalore Commercial Association, which is the association of shop owners on Comm. St.

Meeting with Commercial Street (CSt) Merchants Association

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563 users have liked.
Pedestrian Infrastructure

The meeting with Mr. Shyam Melwani and Mr. Nazim Sait the President and Vice presidents of the association respectively, took place at their board room situated at the Dispensary Road.

The recent closure of the Kamraj road parking by the Army was a setback for the CSt shop keepers business. The reason for the closure was a problem between the Army and the association. People urinating along the wall, safety, security and garbage dumping during the night were some of the problems faced by the Army authorities. The army would like the BBMP to maintain the Urinals built by Army. BBMP has no jurisdiction over the parking area provided by the Army as the land belongs to the Army.

The main requirement of the Association is an adequate parking area at a distance of not exceeding 250 to 500 meters from the commentarial street. The access to CSt is mainly from the Kamraj road side. That from the Shivaji Nagar Side is not so popular. This has caused a divide in the association itself as the shops on Kamraj Road side have an advantage.

We also heard about a dream project of providing about 4000 capacity under ground car park at Parade ground, MG road. This car park will be provided with 4 under ground tunnels opening at 4 locations serving Brigade road, MG road, and at both ends of CST. This is acceptable solution as far CSt Merchants are concerned. They can provide Shuttle service up to the parking lot. This will serve the entire CSt Merchants uniformly. This appears to be an ultimate solution to the parking problem, acceptable to all the Merchants of CSt.

CSt shopkeepers association takes care of Garbage, Hawkers, and beggars problem themselves. There is no back entry to CSt. The trucks have to come only during specific time well before the street is open to business. pedestrianization  is no issue at all.

The ball is in Praja court. The CST association is all for cooperating with Praja to go ahead full steam. 

PSA

[post was moderated to remove some unconfirmed material - moderator]

Praja meet to plan pedestrianization project

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486 users have liked.
23 Apr 2009 16:00
23 Apr 2009 17:00
Asia/Calcutta
Pedestrian Infrastructure

Thursday, Lalbagh West Gate, 4 pm

Let us make use of election day holiday to plan next steps on pedestrianization project. Refer back to recent discussions on pedestrianization possibilities for Commercial Street and Brigade Road stretch. Looks like there is enough interest and enough legs available to take this forward from mere discussion.

Confirmed attendance: das, silkboard, psaram42.

All are welcome, but remember, our meetings are to plan action. Discussions are reserved only for the website.

Feed back for UID draft legislation

This is to take vmenon's UID post forward. The draft legislation on UIDAI is out, it will provide legitamacy to the whole exercise and provide legal frame work on the main issues concerning security of data and personal privacy concerns. Remember, Karnataka is a test state.

http://uidai.gov.in/documents/NIA%20Draft%20Bill.pdf

Idea is to raise our concerns on the bill as a group, consolidate it as report and send it to lawresponse [at] uidai.gov.in before July 13, 2010.

Those with keen eye for details on legislation, take a lead please.  When there is opportunity to beheard, we should out loud our concerns and not rue a missed opportunity.

This is a wiki post (anyone can edit). Or leave comments if you are not comfortable editing this directly.

Lokayukta RTIs

This project wants to get a regular interaction going between Praja members and the office of Lokayukta. The goal of this project is to get information for Lokayukta at regular intervals to help us

Contacts for this project

 

Lokayukta's reply to our first RTI

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523 users have liked.

Some of us here wanted to know more about the Lokayukta office than what the newspapers tell us. Once the excitement of raids and big names get over, we rarely get to know the closure of those cases. So why not ask Lokayukta on a regular basis? Here is what we asked via an RTI application to start with:

  1. For the period October 2008 to December 2008 details of officials (including name, designation and office of work at the time of investigation, current designation and office of work) against whom the Lok Ayuktha has sought permission from the Government of Karnataka (and/or Government of India) for prosecution.
  2. Against how many of these requests has the government responded?
  3. What have been the government's reasonings where sanctions have been denied?
  4. What is the legal status of cases where sanction has been denied?
  5. What action has been taken by Lokayukta in cases where the sanction has been granted?

Why did we ask these questions? Because, we were told by many, including Justic Hegde himself that in most cases, they don't get the permission to prosecute from the government. Moreover, we would want to know what action Lokayukta's office takes once they get the permission.

Well, must say that the reply was a bit disappointing. All the cases are in "pending investigation" status :( Sanction for prosecution (the jargon is PSO) was sought in only 1 out of total 73 raid and trap cases during Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan.

Here is the scanned RTI reply with status of 73 cases.

Needless to say, we should have known that these cases take time before they reach a stage where PSO would be sought. We will send in a new application asking specifically for last 10 cases where Justic Hegde has asked for PSO.

And even more needless to say, if you want to join in these Lokayukta RTI projects, please drop us a message to get connected with the members working on this project. More the merrier. And mind you, we are not doing any investigative or dangerous work here, but just working to bring out information already available with the office of Lokayukta.

Namma Auto - traffic awareness project

Project to spread better driving behavior via education and constructive engagement with Autorickshaw drivers.

Key contacts

Namma Auto (awareness program for auto drivers)

Namma Auto is a community project to bring awareness to auto drivers about the traffic rules and regulations and road safety, this will be the first to create safe roads in Bangalore.

Garden city Bangalore has become the vehicle city with lot of vehicles plying in road more vehicles are being added to the roads which is causing a chaos in the road. Many commuters are violating the traffic rules, causing a lot of accidents and traffic jams. Because of this more lives have been hurt, nearly 20-30% of accidents are caused by not following traffic rules.

If this chaos of not following simple rules of traffic continues for another 5years, we will see nearly three fold increase in traffic jams and accidents. Government will have to spend more money towards taking care of accident victims, increase of road rage and will create an unhealthy environment. Bangalore might become a city of chaos and will lead in the list of accidents caused by road rage, people will be stressed.

There is an urgent need to address the violation of traffic rules, reduce the amount of traffic jams to nearly 40%, reduction in accidents caused by violation of traffic rules. This will eliminate the road rage, allows Government to work on more development activities, and most importantly reduces the stress of people and increases quality of life.

We as a community should start address this issue, since it is difficult to bring awareness to all community. I thought of starting from Auto drivers, which is one of the large community uses the road.

I have planned to arrange a continued traffic awareness program to Auto drivers, through the help of auto union and the community. This will be an opportunity for us to make a difference to this city and also to bring some order to our life.

If you are interested to participate or work with me in making this project a great success request you to contact me.
 

Namma Auto initiative - Updates :)

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603 users have liked.
Traffic

[See this post for details of Namma Auto initiative. Here are some updates on it.]

Hello All,
1)I was able to talk to the Union Leader of one of the Auto union he was ready to provide the necessary support.
2)Received the Training DVD from Pune as suggested by ASJ.
3)Currently working on the translation of Video transcript to Kannada.

We need help in
1)Translating the Kannda and making the Kannada Audio.
2)Work on merging the Audio with the Video.

Let me know if anyone can help us on this.

Thanks
Veera
 

Pedestrian amenities and safety - Bangalore, Swabhimana

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394 users have liked.

Project to bring to focus problems faced by pedestrians in namma Bengaluru and to find solutions to various issues regarding pedestrian safety and rights via fruitful discussions on the subject between the citizens and various stake holders.

The project is being steered by Swabhimana, an experienced trust dedicated to citizen participation causes in Bangalore. More praja members with interest in the subject should join and help in whatever ways possible. For example: members can start highlighting pedestrian issues in detail via spot surveys in select localities.

Key contacts:

A lot of work (meetings with BBMP, Trafic Police etc) has been happening on-ground, just that updates haven't been flowing regularly as Swabhimana folks are not that tech savvy. But that should get fixed once more members get in with them to help out.

[Project created on behalf of Srivathsa and Mr Ananda Rao]

Pedestrian Voice - A joint campaign by Swabhimana and Praja

SWABHIMANA  and  PRAJA  are planning to bring together citizens ,stake holders and elected representatives on a common platform to discuss pedestrian related problems in different areas of Bengaluru

PEDESTRIAN VOICE is a campaign to bring to focus problems faced by pedestrians in namma Bengaluru and to find solutions to various issues regarding pedestrian safety and rights has brought together SWABHIMANA and PRAJA to create a platform to enable fruitful discussions on the subject between the citizens and various stake holders.  We believe that with a sustained campaign we can have a better city in the next 2-3 years.

Background 

BENGALURU was once called  a pedestrians’ paradise . Footpaths were clear and user friendly.There was no fear of being knocked down by a vehicle and it was a pleasure to walk . Footpaths, though poorly lit, were totally free of encroachments. 

Due to rapid urbanisation and increase in vehicle population foot paths have become  a casuality and neglected. Footpaths have become narrow due to widening of roads  to accomodate vehicles and in some busy areas they don't exist. Poor vision and defective planning on the part of various stake holders has today forced pedestrians on main roads to be exposed to accidents. Bengaluru has a network of 4500 km of roads, 40,000 intersections,about 800 manned and signalised intersections and vehicle population of over 3 millions .The city population is in excess of  6.5 millions. Due to poor traffic management and pedestrian safety concern Bengaluru is amongst top five cities in India in number of road accidents and resulting fatalities. Every year 900 to  1000 people die due to road accidents ,of which about  350 are pedestrians.Thousands of crores of rupees are spent in Hospitalisation,Rehabilitation and Insurance every year .
 
We need to give the pedestrian his rightful place in the scheme of things.  Pedestrians cause the least amount of congestion on the roads and environmental damage.  In addition walking is one of the most healthful exercises.  Bangalore has been largely blessed with a good climate devoid of extreme weather conditions. 
 

Objectives of this project

The objectives of this project are 3-fold

a. Ensure pavements exist and are in good shape in the first place. Work with BBMP to identify stretches of pavements (200-300m) where pavements either don't exist or are in bad shape.

b. Minimize encroachments.  We are talking here about cars being parked, poles, etc.  Hawkers are not in scope as agreed between Swabhimana and BBMP.  This is a contentious issue which might simply lead us nowhere.  Work with BBMP and BTP

In the longer term work with elected representatives and BBMP/BTP/BMLTA/BMRCL to evolve a pedestrian friendly approach to town planning.  This will depend on how well the short term project goes.

Swabhimana has already met with BBMP Special Commissioner (Mr.Srikar) and BTP and have been assured of their full support.  Communication attached.

What is expected from Praja members?

a. Swabhimana and some praja members will meet up with authorities, etc

b. What others who cannot participate on the ground can do is to send photographs of footpaths in bad shape/encroached from their respective wards.  Please indicate the ward number/area name, the street name, number (main road/cross road) and some landmarks.  This will make it actionable

Once we have data we will go meet with BBMP.

About Swabhimana

Swabhimana is a platform for like mided groups in Bangalore whose objective is to create a Bengaluru that is clean, green and safe through citizens’ participation.

Founded by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bangalore City Corporation in 1995 as a “citizen – local government interactive forum”, Swabhimana has over the years evolved into a sustained platform of Non-Government Organisations and Residents Welfare Associations in Bangalore, whose vision is to make Bangalore a Cleaner, greener and a safer place to live. Swabhimana was registered as a Public Trust in April 2002.

Swabhimana (Mr.Ananda Rao, Mr.Shanmukh Patel)

Praja (Shekhar Mittal, Deepak Rajanna, Muralidhar Rao, Srivathsa)

 

 
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Meeting with SC- BBMP office 25 March 2009[1].doc21 KB
Add[1].Commis traffic.doc43 KB
Reply frm add, traffic.doc263 KB

Survey of Brigade Road - Residency Road towards Hosur Road

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Pedestrian Infrastructure

Here is a survey of the pavement of Brigade Road between Residency Road and the old Ashoknagar Police station.  This is along the left of the road as the traffic moves.

Decided to take a walk with my family from Richmond Town to Brigade Road.  What an unpleasant experience.  On the way to Brigade Road, bikes were on the pavement coming straight at us and honking.   Crossing the road at Vellara junction, I had to shout at the vehicles to let us go when the pedestrian crossing was green. 

Coming to this stretch itself, it is quite broad for the most part except when it reaches the old Ashok Nagar police station.  The footpath is in reasonably good shape but has broken stretches and even one part where there is the remnant of a bus stop (with the stubs of iron poles still in  the ground).  The road next to the footpath is very very busy as it connects CBD with Hosur Road and bikes often come on to the pavement to beat stationary traffic. 

BBMP needs to put guard rails along both sides of the road to prevent bikes from using the footpath.  Where breaks are needed to let vehicles into buildings (e.g St.Joseph's College of Bus. Admn>) bollards need to be put up perpendicular to the pavement to make sure bikes don't misuse the break.

Further near the old Ashok Nagar police station (now demolished and still not dully cleared), there is an apology of a pedestrian crossing.  Work needs to be done to make sure people can cross safely and have a place to stand and wait.

Plan to do a couple of surveys each week.  Images attached.

Srivathsa

 

Railways in Karnataka - Game for a Vision Plan

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  1. Goal - VISION PLAN for RAILWAYS in KARNATAKA

After every year when the railway budget is presented in Parliament, we hear the cries of injustice to Karnataka and usual political rhetoric sans any data or facts. After a week or so these voices are lost for ever. Not to say that Karnataka has good railway infrastructure. Even cursory look at the railway websites would point to the fact that Karnataka lacks a good railway infrastructure. It is time the ordinary citizens take cognizant of this grave need and voice it to the planners to include the plans to fill the existing and glaring gaps in railway infrastructure.

  1. List of exiting railway lines in the state - May be a map
  2. List of existing trains that run in the state
  3. District-to-District railway Connectivity matrix
  4. Gap-Analysis - List  of missing railway lines, trains to connect various towns and districts.
  5. Study of goods transportation thru railways in Karnataka
  6. A detailed VISION PLAN for Railways in Karnataka

 

 

  1. General Manager, SWR
  2. DRM, Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore
  3. Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway

District-to-District Train Connectivity Matrix

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This is another attempt to understand the railway imprint in Karnataka. This spread sheet represents the matrix of train connectivity between each district. It is one of way of analyzing analytically the actual facts of train connectivity between each district. The perspective or approach is to see how well each district is connected to the other district by train service. In this matrix only the connectivity exist between any 2 districts is marked.

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<p>District-District-Railways-V3.xls</p>44.5 KB

List of Trains that run in Karnataka

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This is the list of trains that run in the state of Karnataka. Please make a note that all trains doesn't originate in Karnataka and all doesn't end their journey in Karnataka. It is is a good attempt to make an effort to know the amount of railway service in Karnataka.

 

NOTE: This list doesn't claims to be an accurate one,. For actual data one may contact the Railway department who are the actual service providers. The list is produced only for the purpose of analysis to propose a vision plan for railways in Karnataka.

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<p>Consolidated List.pdf</p>131.14 KB

Map - Existing Railway lines in Karnataka

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This is the current state of existing railway lines in Karnataka.