Commute

The adage says, "there's safety in numbers". But our Bangalore citizens seem to apply this out of context. Here's a photo I snapped on Sunday.  I wonder how many more people can ride on that two-wheeler, all without helmets....

Outer Ring Road traffic on a usual weekday. Picture Courtesy: Mayur Channagere   The ORR stretch from Ibblur to Marathahalli is home to Ecospace, Embassy Tech Village, Prestige Tech park and Cessna Business Park. In addition we have a world class hospital, scores of commercial buildings, offices and approximately 50,000 residential units (and still growing). Several lakh square feet of space, both residential and commercial, is under construction. The Sarjapur road, adjoining ORR, houses Wipro corporate office - currently 10,000 employees. A new Techpark sprawling on 65 acres is coming up in Carmelaram, near Decathlon Sarjapur road. Many more residential…

Outer Ring Road traffic on a usual weekday. Picture Courtesy: Mayur Channagere   The ORR stretch from Ibblur to Marathahalli is home to Ecospace, Embassy Tech Village, Prestige Tech park and Cessna Business Park. In addition we have a world class hospital, scores of commercial buildings, offices and approximately 50,000 residential units (and still growing). Several lakh square feet of space, both residential and commercial, is under construction. The Sarjapur road, adjoining ORR, houses Wipro corporate office - currently 10,000 employees. A new Techpark sprawling on 65 acres is coming up in Carmelaram, near Decathlon Sarjapur road. Many more residential…

Whitefield. I know the very mention of that name is starting to remind people about all the things that are going wrong in that part of town. In my recent visits to that side too, I have been surprised by the degree to which the city has collapsed over there, and wondering what can be done to retrieve the situation. Rather than continue the litany of complaints, I thought I would put together the things that can be done to tackle the problem, initially focusing on roads and transport. A beeline of vehicles waiting on Varthur Main Road, near Kundalahalli…

Whitefield. I know the very mention of that name is starting to remind people about all the things that are going wrong in that part of town. In my recent visits to that side too, I have been surprised by the degree to which the city has collapsed over there, and wondering what can be done to retrieve the situation. Rather than continue the litany of complaints, I thought I would put together the things that can be done to tackle the problem, initially focusing on roads and transport. A beeline of vehicles waiting on Varthur Main Road, near Kundalahalli…

As the rains continue to batter the city, it is easy to see that the infrastructure is of very poor quality. The potholes, the overflowing sewage, the flooding... these and many other observable things in the city remind us how shabby the quality of public works is. But this is only the apparent problem, the actual problem is deeper. Let's ask ourselves : why are the roads so bad? And then follow the answers steadily deeper to the root of the problem. The roads are bad because there is no check on their quality during the construction phase, and no…

As the rains continue to batter the city, it is easy to see that the infrastructure is of very poor quality. The potholes, the overflowing sewage, the flooding... these and many other observable things in the city remind us how shabby the quality of public works is. But this is only the apparent problem, the actual problem is deeper. Let's ask ourselves : why are the roads so bad? And then follow the answers steadily deeper to the root of the problem. The roads are bad because there is no check on their quality during the construction phase, and no…

Pavements in Indira Nagar 2nd stage are no place for pedestrians, only for construction material. Pic: Praveen S The 10th main or Water Tank road (Ward 89) and the 10th A main (Ward 80) road in Indira Nagar 2nd Stage are two parallel roads connecting 100 feet road and Indiranagar Double road. Both these roads are have ten residential crosses to their left, and the 4th cross road cuts across them, leading to the Indiranagar metro station on CMH road. Off late, many people who want to skip the traffic at the CMH road-100 feet road signal near KFC, have…

Pavements in Indira Nagar 2nd stage are no place for pedestrians, only for construction material. Pic: Praveen S The 10th main or Water Tank road (Ward 89) and the 10th A main (Ward 80) road in Indira Nagar 2nd Stage are two parallel roads connecting 100 feet road and Indiranagar Double road. Both these roads are have ten residential crosses to their left, and the 4th cross road cuts across them, leading to the Indiranagar metro station on CMH road. Off late, many people who want to skip the traffic at the CMH road-100 feet road signal near KFC, have…

If an accident is caused by the poor condition of a road, should the BBMP be held responsible? And should the corporation be forced to pay compensation to such victims? There's been a lot of heated debate about this following the unfortunate recent incident, in which a woman fell off a scooter and died as her husband swerved to avoid a pothole on the street. With the cops booking the husband for negligent driving, and the BBMP pointing fingers at BDA, it seems that we were only too ready to add insult to the tragedy, whereas what is really needed…