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BWSSB Data collection form

The data that we will ask from BWSSB on a regular basis. I think this is too much in detail, we will have to shorten up a bit. But it is a very nice starting point. So lets get the ball rolling.

Street improvements - Problems aplenty

Roads in most Indian cities are a complete mess, literally. When do we see them graduate to some sort of orderliness, if ever ? The reasons for this pathetic state of roads, heavy congestion & poor transport infrastructure are many. Most of us believe that the authorities alone are responsible & lack expertise. However, apart from this, there are many other reasons :

1) City officials are unable to acquire land uniformly throughout a street for maintaining width symmetrically because there are numerous establishments & private parties or individuals that contest such acquisition in courts - army land between Mekhri circle & Rajgopal rd & on ORR on the northwest (near Peenya) are examples, as is the traders agitation along CMH rd.

2) Where roads are of uniform width, 'No Parking' is difficult to enforce or indiscriminate parking is allowed due to the nature of activities on the road, or private vehicles park anyway & usually obstruct movement of traffic - examples are Sampige rd & Margosa rd in Malleswaram, 80ft & 100ft roads in Indiranagar & Koramangala that have numerous retail outlets.

Malathahalli Lake - Flushed out - Now a dry lake

Hi Prajas,

I stay in Malathahalli , especially close to Malathahalli Lake  When we moved in to this location, we really liked it as it was very calm, a perfect place to live amid nature, a lake close by and lot of trees. The lake was streching upto 7 acres ..

Unfortunately this was a short lived paradise, as i see that the authoriities have forcibly removed the water from the lake and now its a dry land. Upon enquiry, I was told that the BDA has taken-up this project and that would re-create a mini lalbagh and that they would introduce boating etc etc..

What I am worried about is that the water condition in the state is pathetic and if they forcibly dry out a natural lake then what.. Recently there was an artilce in Deccan Herald about the city bore-wells are drying up...

I am not sure if this information is true, however some activity is being conducted. Can you please if anyone who is reading this post have insight to this piece of activity. Thank you in anticipation.

Kind Regards,

Neeyathi

 

Relocation of Kadugodi Bus stand

Now it is expected that Railway Overbridge at Kadugodi will be completed soon. It is the time to think about extension of Volvo bus service at least upto Safal Market as lot of residential layout are upcoming in this stretch. Kadugodi bus stand can be relocated somewhere near Safal Market where the land prices are definitely cheaper as compared to the existing location of bus stand.

Meeting with Prof Sekhar Muddu

19 Apr 2010 18:00
Asia/Calcutta

Prof Muddu is a hydrogeologist at Civil Deptt IISc.

One can read about him here

All those who can make it, please confirm.

 

-Shekhar

Crowdsourcing Public Works

I came across this article on slashdot (a tech site). It's an excellent idea that is working for a lot of communities.

http://radar.oreilly.com/...

Is this something that can work in Bangalore? This a great way to report issues such that they are visible to everyone. The reports that are in the newspaper are easily forgotten. But this way it will remain until fixed.

We will also be able to guage the responsiveness of our local governments.

Discuss.

 

Thanks,

Nithin.

 

MoM with Prof TV Ramachandran

Attendees: Neha Dar, Jim Gowda and myself.

We meet Prof Ramachandran from Center for Ecological Studies, IISc this saturday. Even though, he blasted us for not doing anything after our last meeting with him (read about it here), he spent over 2 hours with us discussing this project among other things. I like to call this meeting "He pulled up our socks" session.

Some of the points which were discussed are

Mysore - Chennai New LHB Shatabdi Experience

 This Sunday afternoon I travelled from Mysore to Bangalore on 2008, Mysore-Chennai Shatabdi with new generation LHB coaches. It was a very nice experience. I recently travlled between two cities a lot, mostly on road and it was very boring nowadays with too much traffic on Bangalore-Mysore road. Volvo and car travel as well take minimum of 2 hr 15 minutes from Nayandahalli (Bangalore city tip towards Mysore road) to Mysore.

Amazingly train took just 1 hr 50 minutes from Mysore station to Bangalore station, leaving Mysore at 2:15 and reaching Bangalore(Binny Mill) at 4:05. I had travelled last year in the same train but with older coaches, and it took 2 hr 15 minutes. The new coaches have made a lot of difference. We reached Nayandahalli within 1hr 40 minutes. Unfortunately we were not allowed inside the station, were halted with red signal near Binny mill and left inside only after 10 minutes making the journey 2 hours. Hope railways solves this problem.

Meeting with Siva from Indian Statistical Institute

14 Apr 2010 17:00
Asia/Calcutta

Venue: Cafe Coffee Day at Outer Ring Road near Bellandur Junction

Info about him can be found here http://www.isibang.ac.in/~athreya/

The agenda is to figure out the representation of the parameters/data that will be collected for the water index.

MoM - Meeting with Mr. Thippeswamy

Attendees: Shekhar Mittal, Jim Gowda, Zenrainman Sir, Manjari Vishnoi, Neha Dar

 

We met Mr Thippeswamy, Retd. Chief Engineer (BWSSB) on Saturday at IISc. Meeting minutes captured below.

  • Mr. Thippeswamy reviewed our initial list of parameters and had the following remarks:       

             (1) Coverage - As per the Act, BWSSB must provide water supply to Bangalore Metropolitan Area. Only 50% has been covered.

             (2) Unaccounted for Water: This is really a subset of Non-revenue water. Both physical and commercial. Water is also lost due to cleaning of reservoirs, unexpected pipe bursts, supply to fire hydrants, etc.

             (3) Slum Coverage: It is not the BWSSB 's prerogative to proactively provide coverage to slums. Slum Clearance Boards/BBMP/BDA come to them with proposals, which they then implement.

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