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silkboard - 30-SEP-2007
Literally no peace or silence. Hear it all loud and clear when any of your neighbors talk. So called 'individual' houses, most of them joined with one another at hips. No air or space between them. 8 to 10 feet wide roads (practically speaking), dotted with cars, and cobwebbed with cables of all sorts - tv, telephone and electricity in that order. [flickr-photo:id=1070869665,size=m][flickr-photo:id=1070868895,size=m][flickr-photo:id=1071734032,size=m] |
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Choked Bangalore - Heart of the matter? silkboard - 23-SEP-2007
The best piece of news I have heard this month came last week. It goes "BBMP to book crook engineers". Its something we all know and suspect to be true for ever now, and the plan to break the so called 'nexus' is ambitious: "BBMP will book the engineers of the erstwhile CMCs and TMC who have sanctioned projects on storm water drains, valleys, in agricultural lands etc. ... Taking a serious note of rampant violation of zoning regulations and building bylaws, the BBMP ... will trace these officials ... and recommend action against them ... In the wake of demolitions being carried out across the city, the BBMP has stumbled on several cases where engineers have encouraged encroachments in exchange for kickbacks running into lakhs of rupees." Not that we haven't heard similar language before, but there is an interesting twist to BBMP's threat this time.
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tsubba - 21-SEP-2007
With the new Comprehensive Development Plan - Master Plan 2015 - allowing commercial development in residential areas depending on road width, an area of 55 sqkm across the city has been earmarked for mixed land use. Residential areas with roads more than 60 feet wide will see commercial establishments emerging. While commercial space in some of these roads has already been developed, other connecting roads too will see hectic development shortly. Major roads of more than 60 ft width in various localities in the city: Banashankari: Kathriguppa Main Road, Puttana Chetty Road, Uttarahalli Main Road, Puttenahalli Main Road, Ittamadu Main Road, Pipeline Road, and Bugle Rock Road. Benson Town: Millers Road, St John's Road, Mosque Road, and Coles Road. Jayanagar: R V Road, Pattalamma Street, K R Road, Kanakapura Road, B P Wadia Road, Lalbagh Fort Road, and South End Road. |
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tsubba - 15-SEP-2007Chapter VIII of Bangalore's NURM-CDP, on Urban Drainage Systems. |
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Shops and parking - This is how it begins silkboard - 28-AUG-2007Recently, while passing through Kundalahalli gate, I noticed that some shops had suddenly sprung up on an empty plot. Going by what I understand of BBMP bylaws, the construction does seem illegal. [flickr-photo:id=1256266002,size=m][flickr-photo:id=1255403723,size=m] These shops are literally standing on the footpath, and bang on a major intersection. Of course, there is no place to park bikes or cars here. So once they start doing business, customers' vehicles could block some serious traffic (intersection of Varthur Road and Brookfield main road leading to ITPL). |
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silkboard - 2-AUG-2007
It costs Rs 5000 and there is no online version available, not even a summarized one. So while I am yet to read Bangalore's Masterplan-2015, newspapers have been supplying bits and bytes on it. Of them recently, this one caught my attention. Apparently, with CDP-2015, Architects, planners and engineers face the threat of losing licences if they fail to report violations of building byelaws, and they are not happy with it: "By bringing in this clause, the authorities, they allege, are shifting the burden of enforcing the laws to architects, town planners and engineers." Alright, government bashing is fashion of the day. But I fail to see the rationale behind general expectations that everything is the responsibility of "officials". (Actually, I find this word "officials" pretty amusing, will save that for a later post). |
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silkboard - 4-JUL-2007
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You must be reading about the Bangalore Master Plan in newspapers everyday. Land use regulations, new areas open for development, new FAR ratios etc etc.