BMTC Conveys its thanks to all the Praja Community for Bus Day Support!

kbsyed61 - 15-APR-2010

Came across the news release from BMTC thanking all the patrons who have supported their Bus Day campaign.

A special mention is there for Praja and all the members who have been supporting right from day one. The release says

".....................

BMTC thanks all citizens who travelled by Bus!
 
BMTC is grateful to the below individuals/ associations/ companies for making Bus day a success!........."
 
"...... * Praja - Online Youth Activist Portal: Special Thanks to Syed, Pranav, Jenny, Narayan, Vinod, Srivatsava, Bharath, Manjhari and all the other members who helped BMTC behind the scenes...."

 "........Congratulations once again to the:
 
a) Teams who went to all these corridors to promote bus day and engage with the citizens
 
b) BMTC Drivers, Conductors and Staff for successfully supporting Bus Day operations  ...."  

This release is available here

Street improvements - Problems aplenty

Naveen - 14-APR-2010

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

Neeyathi_hemmige - 14-APR-2010

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

magarwal10 - 13-APR-2010

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

shekhar_mittal - 13-APR-2010

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

nithinsujir - 13-APR-2010

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/2010/04/crowdsourcing-the-dpw.html

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

shekhar_mittal - 12-APR-2010

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

Vasanth - 12-APR-2010

 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.

MoM - Meeting with Mr. Thippeswamy

Neha_Dar - 12-APR-2010

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.

Local Train / Commuter Rail Inputs uploaded

Sanjeev - 10-APR-2010

Following Files uploaded regarding the Local Trains / Commuter Rail for Bangalore  city.

1. Existing  Railway Stations and New Railway Stations needed.

2. Existing  61 + 4 services  of  DEMU / Passanger Trains running arround Bangalore City

3. Bangalore City Railway Track with METRO alignment

4. Approach to be followed for Starting Local Trains

5. Capacity Exists with Bangalore Railway Tracks

6. To be Proposed  11 Alignments  of Local Trains for Bangalore City

7. Changes needed for Local Trains Yesvanthour to Hosur with more Frequency

8. Need for Local Trains and its struggel for Bangalore city.

Other can suggest for changes needed on this so that we can build on this.