Musings from Malleswaram

VMD for Bangalore

2009-02-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

VMD - Vehicle of Mass Destruction

Our own car lobby would destroy Bangalore. Wonder how? Well here are some facts for thought:

Ratan Tata's Tata Motors plans to introduce Tata Nano on Indian Roads by March 2009.

Bangalore has 4 million two-wheelers and 450,000 cars. According to the India Infrastructure Report 2006, a two wheeler occupies 10 times more road space than a bus, in terms of per capita road space utilisation.

A car, not far from that, occupies about 7 times more road space than a Bus.

Ratan Tata plans to have atleast 10% of the two-wheeler users shift to Tata Nano.

For Bangalore, that would mean an additional 400,000 cars on top of the 450,000 that we already have.

We will have more nightmares than we can imagine!

Bengaluru Vs Hyderabad - we have a winner!

2009-02-07T00:18:00.001-08:00

After Mr Ramalinga Raju's "true lies" or whatever, it is clearly emerging that in the battle between the two cities of the Deccan, my home city, Bengaluru is a clear winner.

Only, in this battle - the winner will take it all. Hyderabad has virtually logged out of the "global supply chain" as Tom Friedman, the famous NY Times columnist, would like to term the global economy. Pentium chips could not withstand the heat of Bhagyanagar cooled by the Hussain Sagar lake!

Yet, our humble Bellandur kere (lake in Kannada) seems to be at peace with Electronics City. And it deed, it is the pleasant climate of Bengaluru thanks to existant lakes like Sankey's, Bellandur, Agara lake which is directly contributing to the peaceful and largely fraud free corporate life.

Bengaluru Inc needs to thank past regents like Kempe Gowda of the 16th century and recent ones like Nalvadi Krishnarajendra Wodeyar.

In school text books and innumerous excursions we are taught to marvel the honest and upright Sir M Visveswaryya. Without him, Bengaluru's distinction as the first city in Asia to get electricity would not have been possible.

Yet, our dear Macaulay putri, Smt (or rather Ms) Manjeet Kripalani seems to think that the British bequeathed industrialisation to Bengaluru:

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2009/gb2009026_906652.htm

While not disregarding some of the positive contributions of the British, they were largely not responsible for the steady industrialisation of Bangalore.

The first phase of "industrialisation" began during the rule of Kempe Gowda. Kempe Gowda's efforts in building a system of lakes and rajakaluves (canals) managed to get the most precious resource for early industrialisation - water.

Kempe Gowda's efforts created a horticultural economy. The horticultural economy in turn created a perfumery industry which lasted till the arrival of the British and the establishment of the Cantonment.

Sir M V now stands as the foremost bedrock on which Bengaluru is built on. His establishment of Krishnarajasagara Dam against all odds and other important industries, PRIOR TO INDEPENDENCE largely formed the basis on which Bengaluru is able to establish it's industrial and technological prowess today.

The Aero India 2009 show today should thank Seth Walchand Hirachand's visionary establishment of Hindustan Aeronautics. The good Seth was able to pull it off only due to the munificense of Nalvadi Krishnarajendra Wodeyar. Of course, it must not be forgotten that the British managed to scuttle the Seth's original plans to establish a car manufacturing plant, presumably to protect their own industries.

IISc and Sir C V Raman, india's only nobel laureate completely educated in India and Bangalore specifically - all thanks due to HH the Wodeyar again!

World War I and World War II created the need for cotton which lead to establishment of textiles. This could only be possible with the electricity generated from the Shivanasamudra Hydroelectric plant - the first in Asia.

Florian Taube, in an interesting paper attributes Bengaluru's dynamism to it's social capital:

http://www.isec.ac.in/Taeube_Social_Capital_and_Diversity.pdf

Say goodbye to Sankey Road - or Stand up for it

2009-01-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

Sankey Road - streching all the way from Cauvery Theatre Junction to Yeshwantpur Circle Junction is going to go the same way as Race Course Road did - widened beyond recognition.

Original Story:

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jan212009/city20090121113747.asp

"On condition of anonymity, a BBMP Executive Engineer of the Road Widening Committee, said, “The entire stretch of road from the Cauvery Theatre Junction till the Yeswanthpur will be widened as part of 91 arterial roads expansion project. The Road Widening Committee has already placed the plan, as this road is the crucial connecting road to NH 4 (National Highway). Based on the priority, the road will be demarcated and widened as scheduled”."

Capt Naveen Chandra, once remarked that widening roads is like trying to control obesity by switching to larger sized pants!

Widening of roads in Bengaluru does not benefit anyone. The money just fills the pockets of BBMP / BDA officials and the Contractor-Official Nexus Mafia. This Mafia is responsible for murdering Bengaluru.

The modus operading is simple - some "wothla" consultant, provides "consultation" and "advice" on such projects. Then the Contractor bribes the official in BDA / BBMP and voila - the project is passed.

See an example of how the consultant-contractor mafia worked once:

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/06/stories/2008060651180300.htm

Another example:

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/456-road-works-monitoring

Instead of concentrating on Namma Metro, the BBMP seems to concentrate on Namma Bribes. It should be renamed as 'Bruhat Brashtachara Mahanagara Palike' - Brashtachara is Corruption in Kannada.

This happens because BBMP does not have an elected council in place. An elected council would be more accountable.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak in the 19th century declared that, 'Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it.'. Today in 21st century Bengaluru we citizens do not even have the right to choose our council!

I probably think our planners would just want a city with only roads. No trees, no parks, no civic amenities, no footpaths!

If you feel concerned, please contact the Malleswaram Swabhimana Initiative: http://www.msi-blr.org/msi_default.aspx

Bangalore Transport 2020 plan - Flawed in fundamentals

2009-01-21T02:58:00.000-08:00

I have always appreciated the efforts of Shri Rajeev Chandrashekar towards development of Bengaluru. With all due respect, i find the fundamentals of his plan for Bengaluru transportation quite ridiculous and very short term in sight.

Here is why:

The Plan's basic assumptions are:

* Have Signal Free Roads on "Arterial Roads"

* Increase the number of Buses

But the flaws are that not having signals adequately itself is a big problem. In Bengaluru, we have Vehicle Actuated Signals; More on that here: http://praja.in/node/249/subscribe

The point is quite simple - Adequate signalling and queing leads to better capacity utilisation, read in simple man terms - better flow of traffic. A junction or circle needs to be used by traffic flowing from all directions and even pedestrians (It is another matter that this category is forgotten in Bengaluru!)

Second - Increasing the number of buses.

Buses in Bengaluru are literally the lifeline of this city. If it was not for BMTC buses, we would have had a nightmare. It is only this crucial service that grew organically with growth in the city.

Contrary to perception - A single bus displaces the need for more than 200 cars and and the average road space foot print per passenger is very less.

Well this picture explains it all:

http://randomdude.com/images/car-bus-bike.jpg

Like they say - a simple picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine Bengaluru's horror if all those bus passengers decided to switch to Tata Nano! Even Osama Bin Laden and Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed are not needed for Bengaluru's destruction. Tata Motors could do their job for them!

All this elite lead transport strategies are killing Indian cities. In as much as Tata Nano might bring jobs and economic growth in Sanand, Gujarat - it will become a weapon of mass destruction for Bengaluru. Even Shri R K Pachauri, the Nobel Laureate and Chief of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is said to have remarked that the Tata Nano gives him nightmares!

**What is then the most practical and long term solution for Bengaluru's transportation woes?**

Well, since we are getting used to benchmarking ourselves with Singapore, we should look at how well Singapore's Metro is doing a splendid job of providing 'spinal' transport for Singapore.

Like it or not - Namma Metro is the only long term solution to our transportation problems. A combination of Metro and Mono rail is needed.

The key word is Multi Modal Transport. In layman's or laywoman's terms ]i'm being more gender neutral ;-)] - that means integrating all modes of transport right from the footpath to the Metro.

This is where BMTC could play an adequate role in providing a "feeder" service to the Metro. The old diesel guzzling buses should be disbanded and newer biogas / electricity buses that provide feeder services to Metro should be introduced instead.

Satellite Bus stops such as the MCTC bus stop should be integrated into a Metro Station so that other parts of the city are adequately connected to the Metro.

The Government of Karnataka formed the BMLTA - Bengaluru Metro Land Transport Authority in order to make all stakeholders such as BMTC, BMRC (Namma Metro), The traffic police, BBMP, RTA (Road Transport Authority) to work in PPP (Public Public Partnership).

The BMLTA lacks statutory authority. As such it is a toothless tiger - good for nothing.

If Rajeev Chandrashekar is really interested in changing the way Bengaluru transports itself - he would immediately look into the functioning of BMLTA.