Dreaming Challaghatta Bagh - big new lung space for Bangalore

silkboard - 23-OCT-2008

You may remember reading this last year - Army to close Agara Farm. Each time I am on Inner Ring Road or Sarjapur Road around Agara, I wonder what use is Army putting this vast stretch of Land into. Thanks a million to them, we don't have another middle class slum developing and congesting this area. But if they don't have any serious use planned right now, would they be game to lease it out to us (the citizens) to help create a nice big park cum eco preservation area!? Challaghatta Bagh anyone!?

Speed governors - using technology to enforce speed limits

silkboard - 22-OCT-2008

Here in Karnataka, government is pushing (its not actually govt, its the High Court) speed governors, but they are doing so only for commercial vehicles. If there is a reason or basis for why trucks and lorries are being targeted and not the private cars as well, I would like to know that.

Meeting with Mr Ashok Kheny - **postponed**

admin123 - 22-OCT-2008

Update: 9:30 pm, Oct 27: Something urgent came up at Mr Khney's end for tomorrow morning. He sincerely apologized for this late notice, and promised to do this next weekend or the one after. The tomorrow morning's meeting stands postponed.

Voter Registration Made Easy for MNC employees - Filled forms collected at Company premises!!

votedeindia - 21-OCT-2008

For MNC employees, it doesn't get any easier to get their names on voter list. Forms can be filled at their office desks, and submit the filled/signed forms to VoteDeIndia booth that is setup right next to their Cafeterias.

Outer Ring Road project - work first, tender later?

silkboard - 20-OCT-2008

It was a bit puzzling to spot this tender from BDA in newspapers last week. Dated Oct 15, it called for "Improvements to Service Road of Outer Ring Road from Marathalli underpass to Central Silk Board junction (missing bits)". At least on the tenderwizard site (click for all recent BDA tenders), there is no other older tender calling for improvements to these service roads. The puzzling part however is this. Service Road improvement work is already in full swing! In fact, I have been noticing digging work for over a month now.

Water water everywhere

silkboard - 20-OCT-2008

Did you too notice a spate of water supply related news and announcements recently? Perhaps some influential  individual or minister has water on his mind. Have a look:

Save these trees - road widening?

Rithesh - 20-OCT-2008

BBMP/BWSSB are at it again. I am surprised at the ease with which they go about cutting the trees.

This time it is the stretch of road between BDA junction and Cavery Theater junction (New Airport Road). Some one really very creative is at work here - they are finding new innovative ways to cut down trees and this time BWSSB has chipped in to help them.

In this particular case - BWSSB dug deep trenches just next to the trees (they are laying a pipe line). With in days most of the trees tilted dangerously towards the trench. A couple of days latter all these trees were cut down - may be citing treat to life and property. Surprise surprise, a few days latter, the foot paths are decreased and work is on to increase the width of the road - all this natak for a few extra feet of road (for a road which is already wide enough). Most of these tress were atleast 50-60 years old.

Traffic Congestion – Possible case for a PIL

Naveen - 20-OCT-2008

As outlined below, the formation of the prescribed bodies to tackle traffic congestion & to improve living conditions in the city was completed some time ago as recommended. Despite this, no concrete steps seem to be planned to stem the rot. The same old solutions continue to be doled out – the usual widening of roads after felling more trees & introducing more bus routes. These temporary solutions have been making things worse as widening roads invites more vehicles & the losers continue to be pedestrians & public transport users.
 

City-states as viable alternatives

murali772 - 20-OCT-2008

If Bangalore, for instance, has to become an international city, like Singapore, it must be made into a separate province. China has done it. Its cities deal directly with Beijing. And it has worked. We remember the likes of IT icon Narayana Murthy having spoken on similar lines. Such out-ofthe-box ideas sometimes help in finding viable solutions.

Learn from past mistakes and move on

murali772 - 19-OCT-2008

The recent convulsions in the international financial markets have provoked an unseemly amount of gloating on the part of many in the developing world. What worries me, though, is the number of people in India who are saying similar things. "See, we were right in opposing all this liberalisation," one told me.