Articles by Manoj Sharma

Namma Metro has prepared an exhaustive list of dos and don'ts for passenger safety since services resumed Monday. But it has no standard procedure or frequency for cleaning and sanitising its coaches. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd authorities said that their housekeeping staff have been trained to sanitise coaches at regular intervals from the starting point to the termination point of a trip. But they did not specify the frequency with which the cleaning procedures would be carried out. One official said that the frequency would depend on the availability of staff. The corporation said it was employing their own…

Supply of packaged drinking water in several parts of Bengaluru has been affected after the total lockdown that came into effect from Tuesday midnight. There are many sides to the problem. One, packaged water distributors are unable to fetch cans from bottling companies due to the lockdown. Two, distributors are unable to supply cans to residents who place orders through phone calls. Several distributors in the city have stopped answering their phones as the demand for packaged water has soared and they are unable to meet it. The other side of the story is that offices being the biggest customers…

Whitefield, ORR, Bellandur and surrounding areas are set for a water crisis, as the District Administration of Bengaluru (Rural) has come down heavily on tanker water suppliers for extracting groundwater from farmland. BESCOM has disconnected power supply to tanker operators’ borewells. Bengaluru Khasagi Neeru Sarabarajudhaarara Sangha, an association of private tanker-water suppliers, has called for a strike starting 16 March. This would affect residents, especially those in apartments, who depend on tanker supply for their daily water needs as they have limited or no supply from BWSSB. Tanker water supply to Mahadevapura and East Bangalore areas has become short by…

The delimitation of BBMP wards is being initiated ahead of the civic polls scheduled this year. On March 2, the Urban Development Department (UDD) notified the draft BBMP delimitation proposal in the gazette. With delimitation, ward boundaries will be redrawn so that the population of each ward will be nearly equal, at 42,645 on average. Objections/suggestions to this notification, can be submitted, along with with reasons, in writing to the Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban District, Bengaluru, by 16 March 2020. The idea behind delimitation is to reduce the huge disparity in population among wards. Currently the population in outer wards…

Steps to rejuvenate Bellandur lake at a cost of Rs 245 crore could begin soon. BDA, the custodian of the lake, had floated a tender for the project in January this year. The lowest bidder now awaits approval from the BDA Commissioner to begin work. From the starting date, the contractor will get 18 months to carry out the works. Besides mammoth works such as de-watering and de-silting of the lake, authorities have revealed plans to also have a children’s play area, an enclosure for immersion of idols during festivals, facilities for water sports, a gymnasium and an amphitheatre. BDA’s…

Translated by Mukund Gowda ಅನೇಕ ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಸಿಲ್ಕ್ ಬೋರ್ಡ್ ಮತ್ತು ಕೆ.ಆರ್.ಪುರಂ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಬಿಎಂಟಿಸಿ ಬಸ್ ಚಾಲನೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ರಾಮು ಬಿ.ಪಿ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಕಳೆದ ನವೆಂಬರ್ 1 ರಿಂದ ಜಾರಿಯಾದ ಬಸ್ ಆದ್ಯತೆ ಪಥ ನಿರಾಳತೆ ನೀಡಿದೆ. "ಮೊದಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಈ ಮಾರ್ಗ ಮಧ್ಯದ ಸಂಚಾರಕ್ಕೆ 75 ನಿಮಿಷ ಬೇಕಿತ್ತು , ಕಳೆದ ಮೂರು ತಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದು 45-50 ನಿಮಿಷಕ್ಕೆ ಇಳಿದಿದೆ." ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುವ ಇವರು "ಬಸ್ ಆದ್ಯತೆ ಪಥ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣವಾಗಿ ಜಾರಿಯಾದರೆ,‌ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಸಮಯ ಉಳಿಯುವುದು" ಎಂದು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ.  ಇದೇ ಮಾರ್ಗದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಸ್ ಚಲಾಯಿಸುವ ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಚಾಲಕ ಸಂಜಪ್ಪ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಬಸ್ ಆದ್ಯತೆ ಪಥ ಮಾನಸಿಕ ನೆಮ್ಮದಿ ನೀಡಿದೆ. "ಮೊದಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಜನರು ಬೇಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿಯಿಂದ  ಅಪಾಯಕಾರಿಯಾಗಿ ವಾಹನ‌ ಓಡಿಸುವುದರಿಂದ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಒತ್ತಡ ಇತ್ತು, ಇದೀಗ ನಮಗೆಂದೇ ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಪಥ ಇರುವುದರಿಂದ ಬಸ್ ಚಲಾಯಿಸುವುದು ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿದೆ" ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಸಾರಿಗೆಗೆ ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಪಥ ನೀಡಿರುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂತಸ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಾ, ಎಲ್ಲಾ ವಾಹನ ಸವಾರರು…

It has been almost five months since ward marshals were appointed in the city to prevent public littering, but the piling up of garbage in places other than the designated ones raises questions about how effective the move has been. On its part, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) holds that violations have come down after marshals started patrolling the wards. The BBMP managed to convince the state government to appoint 232 marshals, to prevent random littering of streets, lakes, Indira canteens, landfills and other public spaces, at a cost of Rs 8.51 crore. Ward marshals were deployed from September,…

For Ramu B P, who has been driving a BMTC bus between Central Silk Board and KR Puram for many years, the Bus Priority Lane – in effect from November 1, 2019 – came as a relief.  “Earlier, it used to take about 75 minutes. In the last three months, it has come down to 45-50 minutes,” he says. He also believes things can be improved further. “If the BPL is fully implemented, then it would help us in reducing more time.”  For Sanjappa, another driver on the same route, the BPL has provided mental relief. “We used to get…