i guess, apart from parking it also involves traffic management that is how the 1000s of vehicles per day to and from these enter and exit the main traffic. the thing is what happens if it turns out the burden on traffic due to these developments is just too much irrespective of all the plans. for ex those apts at marathahalli. will such project be rejected in future? agree with naveen they have to taken medium/small developments. a stretch of 100 bad developments on a road = 1 single huge development.

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CBD - Bishop Cotton, Baldwins should be asked to let the vans in their compunds. BC is a big time culprit on Residency Road. BMTCs should be allowed to ply two-ways on St.Marks, Resi and Rich Rds. Bishop Cotton junction also gets cluttered with school vans and BMTC stop. Some suggestions - * remove parking outside the school so the path gets cleared * this path can be only for BMTC * all buses moving towards Mayo Hall can be allowed stops on Res Rd (where the school vans are parked now) * all buses to ShivajiNgr should turn left on St.M's and stop (remove parking here too) *By allowing BMTCs to ply 2-way on these three roads, you are bringing back those bus commuters who have now moved to 2-Ws, for instance when Mayo Hall stop was thrown away near Football Sta. This goes well with the merry go round suggestion. * parking should be ONLY paid parking. expecting BMP to construct parking lot from public money is not right. private players should be allowed to do this. Btw, I heard from a friend working at Infy that people working in EC are taking the trains plying on the Salem Route. This should be encouraged as it will ease the traffic inside the city as well. The EC Community should fight for better Rly link than the elevated or the elevated-upon-elevated highways.

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Get ready to pay premium to own a new car(The Hindu) If you are aspiring to buy a new car, better to buy one immediately. For, soon you may have to pay a premium to own a new one in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR). The authorities are thinking of introducing “car rationing” or auctioning the right to own a new car aimed at decongesting the city roads plagued by ever-increasing traffic. A proposal to this effect was made by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to the Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), the umbrella organisation to regulate all kinds of road transport (except the Railways) in BMR. The BMLTA is seeking expert opinion on the issue. Apart from suggesting introduction of quota system for cars, the BMTC has proposed to levy congestion tax for private vehicles which enter and ply in congested areas of the city. Singapore model The suggestions are based on the Singapore model, which had enforced ownership control and user restriction. Adopted in 1990, the quota system aims at controlling ownership and increase in personal vehicles. Open tenders are invited twice a month to auction ownership rights and the “certificate of entitlement” is valid for 10 years. Also, area licensing system with electronic road pricing was adopted to regulate entry of private vehicles into the central business district. Vehicles are fitted with electronic cards and entry points at restricted zones have sensors to read the card. Congestion charge gets deducted from vehicle owner’s bank account once the vehicle enters the restricted zone. With these measures, congestion in the CBD is under control despite there being an increase in the number of vehicles. The number of cars registered and kept in use in BMR has increased from 21,760 in 1976 to five lakh in 2007. Since 2004, more than 40,000 cars were added every year. On an average, 200 new cars are registered daily in 10 Regional Transport Offices across the BMR. Those registering new cars outside Bangalore and using them in BMR will have to pay entry tax. If the car is found being used in the city for long, the owner will have to pay the congestion charge, the proposal said. Reacting to the proposal, K.S. Satyavratha, a businessman, termed it ridiculous. “For me, car is a necessity and a way of life since I have good income and want to lead a decent life. The ‘permit raj,’ the other way to corruption, in a democratic set-up has become irrelevant. Let the Government provide sufficient infrastructure to take the increasing burden of vehicles.” Transport Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana said the issue was still in proposal stage. Any decision had to be taken at the highest level; he said and added that that there were many issues to be looked into. One of the issues would be revenue to the Government through registration tax. The other would be how to check outside vehicles being used in BMR. Gain to society However, advocates in favour of public transport argue that the Government should take into account the long-term gains instead of short-term ones. Less number of private vehicles on roads means less number of accidents and less air pollution, which profoundly contribute to social health.

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The BC parking issue was one of the deciding factors for converting the richmond and residency(why is it called that? I dont see any one reside there) road to one ways. The other reason was the access to the current airport. This is reason for the great 'signal on flyover' concept to be implemented! These schools/colleges can as well get all their vehicles(busses/vans/cars) within their premices..I see many times when there is a single kid in a huge mercedes..what a plight!!! With the new airport coming up..and many airport vehicles getting diverted.. probably setting this school parking issue sorted we can have the oneway rule reverted also!

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I personally think that enforcement is the most important one. If we have 10 lane roads in bangalore, it will be 10 lanes of chaos. Start with a 3 x 3 km zone inside the city or on the arterial roads and show the public that they mean business. I hear that Delhi is much improved. More roads mean more cars. Public transport should be improved. BMTC does not cover enough. Take an example of 9th cross in JP Nagar - not one bus goes on it. Or direct buses from Koramangala and Jayanagar to EC or ITPL. Car usage wont come down - but two wheelers can. Make parking stiff. We don't pay anything now. how can BBMP wash it's hands off parking. rs.20-30/hr in the CBD is the minimum. Add a cess for petrol and diesel in bangalore (in the order of rs.5/l). Should go to a kitty to improve infrastructure (people who use it pay for it). Srivathsa

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need to dig up why bmp is not able to implement paid parking. obvious answer is people not willing to pay. but hey, we all know if they want to do it, they will do it. something else cooking here. i am sure they can use the revenue to maintain roads and what not. sri... Start with a 3 x 3 km zone inside the city or on the arterial roads and show the public that they mean business. could not agree more with you this. 3 lanes means three lanes. 9+9 meters of right of access. one of things is would like to see is half lanes, 1.5 meters wide, for two wheelers and autos. 3 meter lanes guides big vehicles, for small vehicles 3 meters is too wide to discipline them and they drift anywhere in that lane. remember that episode in seinfeld where kramer makes luxury lanes? :) here is how the markings would be... W=Wide line, T-Thin line W-T-W-T-W-T-W (we currently have: W-W-W-W)

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Additional Commissioner, Traffic, KC Ramamurthy source: The Deccan Herald. Q: The problem.. A: The load on the City roads is four times more than what they can take. For instance, a road which can take maximum 100 vehicles at a time is taking around 400 vehicles. Bangalore can cater to 10 lakh vehicles per day, but we have 35 lakh vehicles plying on the roads. Then there’s an additional burden of 1,000 new vehicles per day; every month 30,000 vehicles get registered. Apart from these, there are vehicles coming from outside. Where’s the infrastructure to cater to these many vehicles? Besides this, roads are used for parking. New commercial complexes, residential areas, software parks are coming up with hardly any planning to manage the increased traffic. The way BMTC bus stops are located adds to the confusion. Further, ongoing infrastructure projects have further eaten into the road space. The traffic police are not involved in town planning. Suggestions for improving the traffic situation? We need to increase the road length; create more flyovers, underpasses and grade separators etc. Along with it, we should reduce the number of vehicles, on a war footing. There should be provision for parking inside complexes, residential and commercial. Around 15 per cent of our road space is taken away by parked vehicles. The BBMP should complete infrastructure projects on time. We have also requested the BBMP and BMTC to build some more bus bays. We plan to have bus bays at 128 places in the City. For the first time, the BBMP and traffic police are having regular meetings to discuss common areas of concern; on improvement of junctions, road condition, water logged areas, potholes etc. The outcome? We hope there’s better co-ordination among all the stakeholders. There should be more and stringent conditions on converting residential areas into commercial; apartment complexes should have sufficient parking for their occupants. Roads are dug up and there are hardly any footpaths. We are requesting the BDA and BBMP to complete their projects on time. We have listed out the roads to the BBMP, where there is traffic congestion because of water logging; they are working on them.

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Traffic Norms For Big Buildings (ToI, 11/11/2007)

Reducing Chaos
* Any project with more than 10,000 square metre of site area has to get the approval of the traffic police.
* Builders will not be given the approval unless a traffic management plan is in place.
* Builders have to sit with BBMP and traffic police to work out a traffic plan on managing vehicles coming in and out of their premises.
* The movement of traffic, parking of vehicles and men deputed to manage traffic are some aspects that have to be dealt with in the plan.

Once the massive commercial-cum-office complex on Vittal Mallya is fully commissioned, at least 200 cars will come out at the same time to the already choked road. Mallya Road residents had never imagined their peaceful lane would turn into one of the most chaotic stretches in the city.

Do civic authorities think of the impact on the road before sanctioning multi-storeyed complexes? Not so far. But they will, in future, for projects with more than 10,000 sq metres site area.

Along with civic authorities’ approval for mega residential and commercial projects, realtors will, henceforth, require a clearance from the traffic police too. The BBMP, which has taken decision on the new rule, has written to the traffic police, saying all major real estate developments should be allowed only if a traffic management plan is in place. The BDA’s masterplan does not provide for this, but the move is imperative as city roads are bursting at the seams already.

“All buildings, commercial or residential, coming up in over 10,000 sq metre area should have a traffic management plan. Builders have to sit with BBMP and traffic police to work out a traffic plan on managing vehicles coming in and out of their premises. The movement of traffic, parking of vehicles and men deputed to manage traffic, are some aspects that have to be dealt with in the plan,’’ BBMP commissioner S Subramanya told the Sunday Times of India.

A huge apartment complex coming up on Bellary Road has over 200 units. There will, invariably, more than 1,000 vehicles going in and out in a day. During peak hours, at least three cars will come out in a minute. The already clogged highway will be choked further.

Subramanya has discussed it with big builders and traffic police. Together, they are working out traffic management plans for major properties that are on the verge of completion.

A traffic plan will be drawn up after referring to the masterplan, which has prescribed the width of the road vis-a-vis sanctioning of building plans. Additional commissioner of police, traffic and security, K C Ramamurthy, said the spirit of the concept is to have projects planned in accordance with the road capacity and to prevent complexes coming up on roads that are saturated.

“The traffic department should be consulted before clearing mega-projects. Without a traffic management plan, the exercise would be futile. Since there are several malls, commercial and residential complexes lined up, it is high time traffic planning is done and the department is consulted,” he said.

As a precursor, the traffic police will conduct a study on the capacity of arterial roads. The jurisdictional police have been told to identify major roads and submit a list. The study will focus on the road width, length, capacity, existing traffic and future projections. Such data will be handy when mega-projects are placed before the department for clearance, he said.

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Aha. Feels so good to see people tal the right things now. Its not just traffic that needs to be in place. Power, Water, Policing/law_n_order, Waste management and more - any big commercial or residential complex places stress on the existing infrastructure. Its only common sense that either the infrastructure be put in place before approving large projects, or the accompanying infrastructure be built as part of or along with the project. In fact, builders can share some burden (from what I hear, they would be willing to if they can see easy and quick results) as well. Other way of looking at it is - part of taxes that residential or commercial end-users (companies, individual buyers) pay when buying/leasing dwellings or cubicles, that must be transparently used to augment infrastrucgure in that area. In fact, I think there is case for doing a PIL preventing BBMP/BDA etc from approving new large or medium projects before they prove and ensure that they are doing their bit to use taxes to provide services/infrastructrure to the citizens and businesss. That way BBMP/BDA, stae govt etc wont have the excuse like "oh, this much growth is unmanagable". Growth can never be unamanagable. Let Bangalore turn the unmanaged growth away to other parts of the city or state if it can't 'manage' it.

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Re. the step being taken to regulate new constructions with plot areas over 10,000 sq mtrs (about 2.5 acres) for traffic impact --- Examples of such developments are Salarpuria Techpoint at Koramangala, Ritz Carlton Hotel by Nitesh Estates on Residency Rd, Shangrila Hotel by Adarsh on Palace Rd, near Cunningham Rd Jn, UB City on Kasturba - Vittal Mallya Rd, etc.. Developments such as Forum Mall, Big Bazaar (KML & OMR), Garuda Mall, etc. are other examples that have already been completed. These large developments, by & large have provided adequate parking areas within their premises - the concern is the road & traffic flows outside. Whilst this may sound meaningful, given that traffic volumes on all roads are very high, the smaller developments (below 10,000 sq.mtrs) are still not being included to be supervised for following bye-laws & impact on traffic & have consistently been flouting rules. The real point is that these smaller roadside units have been getting away with using all their land area for commercial developments & ignored the need to provide parking, & have assumed that roadside parking near their premises is their right. Parking of vans /tempos to unload or transport their wares is usually on the public road or on the foot path near their premises. According to bye-laws, such commercial units are required to provide parking in their basements, but have converted these basements to shops, hotels, office, etc & exploited the space for commercial gain. The shops & software units in Koramangala are an example for this. Traffic flows on almost every city road is thus aggravated with parking lots springing up even in 'No Parking' zones, & only the larger developments are to be scrutinized now for restricted traffic flows. The large scale violations by smaller developments have resulted in roadsides turning to parking lots - & this trend will continue if immediate steps are not taken. I visited Kingfisher airlines booking office at the corner on Lavelle-Vittal Mallya Rd junction a few days ago & they did not have any parking for customers. The limited space they had (part of the foot path) was for their staff & so, I had to park somewhere near UB city, almost a km away. When I brought this to their notice, they seemed not to care, as this was the norm in the city & perhaps the whole country. I strongly feel that violations by existing units must never be accepted & very high penalty + hefty increase in property taxes must be strictly enforced. With the revenue generated, multi-story parking lots can be developed by acquiring suitable properties on each road & 'No Parking' enforced on many roads, except those that have adequate width & where parking does not interfere with traffic flows. Sadly, BBMP is now trying to regularize all such violations.

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Naveen, very well said. Small businesses have it easy, they stay under the radar and get away with violations of all types: construction, parking, safety, employment, and perhaps taxing and accounting as well. Once you are big and 'visible', there is more pressure on you to play by the rules. Not that big businesses don't bend the books, but small businesses get the best of both worlds.

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Taking a cue from Shastri's post.. http://bangalore.praja.in/blog/tarlesubba/2007/08/02/lanes-are-they-useful#comment-178 It is very much necessary that we have right most lanes for fast traffic and so on. It is observed that ego's run high in auto drivers.. Scenario: There will be 3 autos on 3 lanes riding at not more than 45KMPH in one line and not letting other fast moving traffic around them and then invariably the frustrated car guy bumps to one of the autos and the road is blocked for an hour! The dedicated auto lanes is a failure..the traffic lanes depend on type of vehicles plying..there is no uniformity(as in just cars) here in Bangalore! We have cycles/autos/bikes/cars/busses together. About the ideas coming out from here.. is someone out there really reading this stuff thats been discussed? some of the maps uploaded and the studies posted are no less than a thesis grade!

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There are number of ongoing projects in city. The contractors of such huge projects do not care for the safety of people and damage the existing infrastructure. While a fly over is being constructed, the existing road is full of loose sand and gravel. The dust araising from this affects the health of the commuters and the existing roads are also damaged . If the contractors take a little care and effort and clean the roads making it free from sand and gravel, it helps a lot. Asthma patients are increasing in Bangalore because of pollution. An example is hosur road expressway construction. 15%-20% of the road is unused because of the loose sand. In Singapore, if there is a truck coming out of construction site, its tires are washed before it leaves the construction site, so that the truck doesnt carry the mud on to the clean road. If the authorities find any sand and gravel on the road because of the construction, they would be fined for damaging the existing infrastructure. Our PWD/BBMP should also enforce such laws and protect the health of people. The PWD has released Rs.45 lacs for maintenance of hosur road. What we are seeing is good road asphalted again. The bad patches are left out and they start spreading to the good stretches. Instead of removing sand and gravel which damage the road, they asphalt the road. There was also an instance where a road was laid just before a rainy day ! Why cant the PWD and contractor watch the weather prediction and then lay the roads? The road was damaged the very next day. This shows that there is a high level of corruption in the PWD. They do not want to give a quality solution because, if they do they will have no other work to make money. The PWD and BBMP should be publishing the area-wise expenditure made on the projects. There should be more transparency in these departments to curb corruption. There are many areas where the drainage system is revamped although there is no necessity. The honest tax payers money going into the corrupt hands. Suggestion to traffic woes The increase in Automobiles should be attributed to the economic development which has increased jobs in Bangalore. To organize, much has been said in the earlier post. That apart, we also have to stop all licenses issued to ply autorickshaws in Bangalore. Currently there are many ricks on the road whose behave like nomads. Some ricks brake rules and a few are involved in robbery. Next the taxi; These drivers of these vehicles are so rude on the road and try to drive even on footpaths. If anyone try to say what they are doing, they pounce with support from fellow cab drivers. These people should be thought about road rules (A television program about driver education in local channels would help). The number of taxis should also be restricted within the city. Restricting these vehicles would contain the vehicular population to some extent.

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Many of us cheered lustily when it was announced last month that all new large buildings would have to work out a traffic management plan and get a no-objection-certificate from the traffic police. Following up on that, Basavaraj Itnal of newindpress.com discovered that neither the palike nor the police has any legal standing to either demand or grant such clearences. Palike commissioner Subramanya argues that nevertheless that is the way to go and that they could amend the bylaws to make this all legally binding. Another interesting thing that comes out of the report is for all the diagnosis and prescriptions that the police makes, it has no traffic engineers on its rolls. (The palike has a traffic engineering cell)

Police, Palike Can’t Ask Traffic NOC For Buildings
Basavaraj Itnal, Wednesday December 19 2007



The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) is demanding a no objection certificate (NOC) from the traffic police before issuing building licences with more than 10,000 square feet of super built-up area. But neither the police nor BBMP has any legal standing to demand it.

Further, city police has no expertise in traffic impact study. Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic) K C Ramamurthy told this website's newspaper that the department was relying only on empirical knowledge of his staff.

“Police had always been regulating traffic in the city. They are the best judges as to what impact a new skyscraper would have on the traffic. It does not need specialist advice,’’ he said.

Does it mean traffic management is left to left to empirical knowledge of policemen? Or do they have any team who have background in traffic engineering? Ramamurthy said: “We have none.’’

But then under what law Police would demand compliance? “Palike should answer that question. They had been referring building plans to us,’’ he said.

Palike Commissioner S Subramanya too had no straight answer. “Building bylaw does not demand such an NOC, but are we supposed to do nothing to address traffic impact due to new high rises? We have identified a problem and are trying to do something about it,’’ he said.

What about legal limitations? “We will amend the bylaw,’’ he said. Officials from the Traffic Engineering Cell and Town Planning Department along with traffic police comprise the building plan scrutiny committee.

The builders are asked to find an expert and make a presentation on traffic impact management to the satisfaction of this committee - while no law demands it.

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some how missed this. great post ranjan.

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SRTS: BACK TO SQUARE ONE (Deccan Herald)
Choked roads as a result of vehicles parked around schools in the CBD (Central Business District) of the City reaching annoying proportions during mornings/evenings are a common sight today.
Choked roads as a result of vehicles parked around schools in the CBD (Central Business District) of the City reaching annoying proportions during mornings/evenings are a common sight today.

But it seems precious little is being done to sort the problem. While motorists fume at the lack of space on roads as a result of parked vehicles, the school managements refuse to allow them into their premises and police plead helpless.   
This, in-spite of the ‘Safe Route to School’ (SRTS) initiative introduced more than two years ago by the Bangalore City Police and the Bangalore  Metropolitan Transport Corporation to address the issue. The initiative received encouraging responses when first introduced as a alternative to private vehicles ferrying kids to school but it did not yield expected results further on.
Though about 50 educational institutions in Bangalore utilise the service of 245 BMTC buses under the SRTS initiative, many parents continue to prefer private transport such as cars, two-wheelers, tempo/maxi-cabs and auto-rickshaws to ferry their wards.
“It is an arduous task to relieve congestion around the schools’ vicinity and the responsibility also lies with the school authorities and parents. They could allow parking of vehicles into their premises or use BMTC buses but not many schools have the luxury of parking. Schools and BMTC should offer incentives to parents to switch over to public transport” adds K C Ramamurthy, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security).
Another police official says the education department must seriously consider issues of playgrounds and vehicle parking when permission is granted to start a school/college.
“The decision taken by the traffic police to convert both Residency Road and Richmond Road into one-ways  has been a failure.  What did the one-ways do? It increased the speed of moving traffic and pollution, causing great danger to school kids, wasting precious fuel and annoying everybody.
A vehicle from one point to another is on the street approximately for ten minutes because of one-way traffic” points out Prof M N Sreehari, a traffic and transportation engineer.
M A Saleem, Director (Security and Vigilance) KSRTC was earlier DCP Traffic (East), under whose tenure the SRTS was initiated. He says,
“The project to encourage use of BMTC buses by schools was successful with 207 of them taken by the institutions. Congested areas such as St Marks Road and Residency Road did see some relief. The only solution is to encourage travel by buses help the situation”

SCHOOLS SPEAK
Sister Preeti, Principal, Sacred Heart Girls High School

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Colonel John Ellis, Principal, Bishop Cotton Boys High School

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Ms Franklin, Principal, Bishop Cotton Girls High School

Safe Route To School
The ‘Safe Route To School’ initiative (SRTS) that was launched  in February 2005 by the City traffic police in association with the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation aimed at decongesting  traffic at peak hours in the vicinity of city schools. When introduced then, the police had banned parking within 200 mts at 16 English medium schools which braced the SRTS initiative in the CBD (Central Business District) of the city.
Police estimates put the figure of 3,000 cars and over 800 two-wheelers are on the roads every morning at the gates of schools in the CBD

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Revenue model, a solution?
A former student of Bishop Cotton’s and secretary, Brigades Shops and Establishments Association, Suhail Yusuff suggests a solution to ease traffic in the vicinity of schools by advocating implementation of an automated ‘Smart Card’ system by schools across Bangalore to allow entry of vehicles of students into their premises with an added benefit of a revenue that could earn them Rs 30 lakh a year, which he says is too tempting to refuse. “This will reduce the number of vehicles parked on roads”  he adds

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How the ‘Smart Card’ works...
- The schools should provide an ‘Entry and Exit’ automated gate that works on a smart card which is sold only to the students who come in vehicles.
- Institutions should make it mandatory for the vehicles to drop students inside school premises.
- The entry gate of the school is automatic and opens when the smart card is swiped. The vehicle then enters in, drops the student and leaves by the exit gate, which opens on swiping the card again.
- The system records the time of vehicle entry and exit. The automated process does not allow vehicle to remain in school beyond the stipulated time of 1/2 or 1 hour.
- Exit gate blocks entry if vehicle remains beyond stipulated time. A fine of Rs 50 or 100 could be levied if vehicle violates rules.
- Smart Card could be issued at Rs 500 per month and allow 500 cars. Revenue to school could be Rs 2,50,000 per month and Rs 30 lakh per year.
- The system could be an answer to city’s traffic jams and reduce the traffic problem at the CBD (Central Business District) during peak hours.

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