Infrastructure

ST Layout Bed, 9am on a Tuesday. In a vacant plot of land, street sweepers gather the fallen leaves and garbage on the streets into two piles. They set them on fire and go on with their business. Meanwhile, all the surrounding houses are getting smoked up with toxic fumes and the ambient air is getting significantly worse. Burning leaves or any garbage is a forbidden practice in Bangalore and yet it remains a common way to dispose of garbage. Composting of leaf litter is an alternative whether it be local or at a composting plant; its mere existence should…

B.PAC submitted its strong objections to BESCOM proposal for increase of electricity tariff for FY-18. T.V. Mohandas Pai, Vice President, B.PAC made the submissions before the commission today during the public hearing conducted by KERC. Following are the highlights of B.PAC’s submissions: Distribution Loss: All divisions/towns in BESCOM with distribution loss above average 15% should be borne by BESCOM and not to be loaded to the consumer. Power purchase: KPCL thermal power supply has reduced significantly to a tune of 2088 MU, BESCOM purchased short term power throughout the year at high price. Rs. 313.4 Cr is the difference amount…

B.PAC submitted its strong objections to BESCOM proposal for increase of electricity tariff for FY-18. T.V. Mohandas Pai, Vice President, B.PAC made the submissions before the commission today during the public hearing conducted by KERC. Following are the highlights of B.PAC’s submissions: Distribution Loss: All divisions/towns in BESCOM with distribution loss above average 15% should be borne by BESCOM and not to be loaded to the consumer. Power purchase: KPCL thermal power supply has reduced significantly to a tune of 2088 MU, BESCOM purchased short term power throughout the year at high price. Rs. 313.4 Cr is the difference amount…

Dignity, and quality of life in one's old age is not something given to all of us; sometimes, for various reasons, people have to take up residence in an old-age home. I recently visited one such home, only for ladies, in J P Nagar.   I found that the number of ladies in residence had dwindled to only eight, but these ladies seemed quite peaceful and content with their lives. Indeed, one of them (name withheld on request) regularly makes rangolis in front of the gate each morning. However, life is not luxurious. There are, indeed, several "senior citizens" residential…

Dignity, and quality of life in one's old age is not something given to all of us; sometimes, for various reasons, people have to take up residence in an old-age home. I recently visited one such home, only for ladies, in J P Nagar.   I found that the number of ladies in residence had dwindled to only eight, but these ladies seemed quite peaceful and content with their lives. Indeed, one of them (name withheld on request) regularly makes rangolis in front of the gate each morning. However, life is not luxurious. There are, indeed, several "senior citizens" residential…

Most borewells along Sarjapura Road do not yield much water. A new apartment opposite Kaikondrahalli Kere is also struggling for water as their borewells run dry. The builder decides to revive an old  open well in his property. The well is  18ft in diameter and 40ft deep and has been fully closed with mud. Pedanna the well digger is called in. Alongwith his team Pedanna excavates all the 40ft of mud manually. They strike water at about 20ft below ground level. The water has to be pumped out as they continue to dig. The well is now completely excavated and…

Most borewells along Sarjapura Road do not yield much water. A new apartment opposite Kaikondrahalli Kere is also struggling for water as their borewells run dry. The builder decides to revive an old  open well in his property. The well is  18ft in diameter and 40ft deep and has been fully closed with mud. Pedanna the well digger is called in. Alongwith his team Pedanna excavates all the 40ft of mud manually. They strike water at about 20ft below ground level. The water has to be pumped out as they continue to dig. The well is now completely excavated and…

Yesterday (Sun, 1st Jan 2017) , at about 7.30pm, we drove on to the NICE Road (now it's the NECE Road) at the Mysore Road junction,  and there were long queues of cars waiting to pay the tolls. We found two men standing in front of the toll gates, collecting tolls. Thinking that they had devised a good way to speed up the process, we decided to pay the toll to them. Our toll from Mysore Road to Bannerghatta Road was Rs.58. To our surprise, they asked us to pay Rs.60. When we  challenged them as we knew the exact…

Yesterday (Sun, 1st Jan 2017) , at about 7.30pm, we drove on to the NICE Road (now it's the NECE Road) at the Mysore Road junction,  and there were long queues of cars waiting to pay the tolls. We found two men standing in front of the toll gates, collecting tolls. Thinking that they had devised a good way to speed up the process, we decided to pay the toll to them. Our toll from Mysore Road to Bannerghatta Road was Rs.58. To our surprise, they asked us to pay Rs.60. When we  challenged them as we knew the exact…

Are you frustrated by traffic delays in Bengaluru? Do you know how much time you and others are wasting due to traffic jams! While everyone in Bengaluru complains about the traffic problems of the city, very few invest their personal time and capability to critically analyze problems and identify solutions.Volunteers from Whitefield Rising with the help of MapsHalli have found a way to analyze traffic problems. The idea is to use technology to analyze realtime Google traffic data to help Bengaluru traffic police, commuters, and city planners to take action.The team chose the Outer Ring Road section from Mahadevapura to…