Saturday, June 03, 2006

Bangalore....What is missing ???

Till a couple of years back, Bangalore was supposed to be probably the best city to live in India. Main reasons being its tremendous growth due to IT and its round-the-year amazing weather. Bangalore was touted to be the next Silicon Valley of the world, the next big thing in the face of Indian soil.

Now, it is doubtful. Will Bangalore really be able to acheive the predicted heights?

There are lots of things that need to be worked upon today, to make Bangalore the dream city. I moved to Bangalore in 2002, and I have seen the city change...rather crumble...before my own eyes. The change of governments and the apathy they have shown has not done any good to the place.

I want to use this forum to discuss what all can be done to improve the city we live in. Let us not only talk about the problems, but the soultions as well. And last but not the least, let us find a way to have our opinions and suggestions heard.

Your inputs please.....

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Few basic things can go a long way to improve us as a city and a country...notto throw garbage on our streets, not to spit, not to pee, be punctual for our personal and professional engagements....if we stick to some of these basic tenets, we can kickstart something useful.

Sriraj

Venkat said...

Rajni,

Really appreciate the fact that you're not among the list of people cribbing about the place..

infrastructure needs to be really improved, i think thats known but an unavoidable mention.

traffic in Bangalore ought to be the worst.., so the faster we get our roads in order the better.

Specifically, the following things :

Timely completion of our flyovers and have more of them where applicable

MRTS : ( hope I have got the abbreviation right..)

Better bus facilities, having another Centralized place other than Majestic.

Speedy completion of the International airport.

Anonymous said...

Guys,

Am just curious...how much of these projects that Venkat has enlisted have a public-private consortium type of arrangement? Or, are they all being solely managed by the govt? Because, I think, if this be the case, there is no accountability and things keep on getting worse with pace of infrastructure development unable to keep up with pace of newer people coming in. Anyone know anything about this? Is there a website where the public has access to this info? after all, this is our money, right?!! Would appreciate any inputs.

Sriraj

Rajni said...

I know of some roads which are being constructed and maintained in public private type of arrangement. Will try to see if I can get more info on this.

Another very good way to decongest the city is to encourage car pooling at a corporate level, and with some implementable plans.

Anonymous said...

Rajni,
To start with, discipline while driving on the road ! Roads, flyovers are beyond the control of individuals. How we drive, how we follow the rules, drive with the designated lanes is certainly within us. Till we practice driving ethics -i.e. say NO to lane-cutting, too much honking, turning without giving signals, breaking the signal light whenever we get a chance, stopping anywhere in the middle of the road, the roads/flyovers cannot help us !

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with Sriraj. It enrages me no end (Not to mention the noise pollution it contributes to) when the honking starts the moment traffic lights go green. We all are in a hurry to reach somewhere but it will do noone any good if we donot adhere to driving etiquette and show some patience on the road.

A friend was telling me of someone who has created a website for a particular locality. People login to put forth their grievances and problems, which can later be brought to the notice of the local political member (if any).

We can help by not littering and ensuring that our friends and aquaintances do the same. Ensure that hired help are also educated about this.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, didn't mean to be that Anonymous....

Swati

Anonymous said...

well well well... Bangaluru as we may all call it now...is definately an awsome place to live in.. if you r 40 + ... because of it being so slow paced and lethargic ... i aam sure a lot of natives will kill me for this statement...but well...
what do we get here to eat... after we are thrown out of parties a 11.30..... only fresh air..
so one thing that definately needs to change are its timings

as someone said somethings are in our hands and the other things are not... so i rather change myself than blame others for the roads and traffic et al ..

Anonymous said...

"India must be the only country in the world, where people fight to be called backward"
- Narayan Murthy




gUYS ... ANY COMMENTS...;-)

Mahadev said...

Take a close look at the city's roads and drainage, incompetence, corruption or lack of resources, or a mix of the three, are the only factors that could have brought Bangalore roads to their present state.
Govt should expand the city. Ot skirts should get more and more focus so that the central city can get some good air to breath.
Expand city limits to greater extend and have wonderful BUS/TRAIN or any common public transport to ease the commuting problem.
Then comes drainage,I really didnt see any drainage system in Blore.AFter some 5 years thats going to be the major concern.

let me think and update more later.

Venkat said...

Rajni,

I'd recomend small but effective steps if you really want to help.

Car pooling would definitely help.

If we can spread the message of traffi c ethics within each of our companies, it's a job well done.

I have some thoughts on how to go about it, if you are seriously intrested.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rajni,

Couple of quick thoughts on this:

a) Timely completion of fly-overs and other infrastructure projects (Eg The International Airport-currently, our airport is more like a bus stop!)-Have penalty AND bonus clauses in place with contractors to penalise/reward contractors for project time lines.

b) Staggered office timings-This could help ensure that all of us are not in the road at the same time.

c) Some kind of a cess for entering the CBD(Central Business District) or other key areas of the city. Hence, people venture into main areas of the city only for pressing matters and not just for TP (Brigade Road, MG Road jaywalkers beware!!)

d) Some incentives thrown in for car pooling-Only then will people actually do this. I guess it might need to be monetary to induce people to do this. The funds for this could be generated from c above?? At least partly.

e) Improve public transport. Need of the hour. Better buses, with better frequency. A definite MUST. More security for women travelling by public transport-we don't need the bottom pinchers, thank you very much! Only then can we women travel in buses more comfortably.Else, you guys will have to travel across the city to drop/pick us up...thus effectively jamming the roads.

f) Public co-operation-I think we all need to get back and get licenses re-issued to us. We seem to have forgotten basic courtesies like sticking to a lane, not cutting signals, not honking so loud and so much that the other person suffers from a nervous break-down...etc etc

This is my top-of-the-mind recall....
Will share some more thoughts if they strike me...

Janaki

Anonymous said...

Well well..

> I seriously doubt whether "good climate all round the year" has *anything* to do with the IT boom that happened here.

> I believe it all started because quite a few bright individuals started ventures here (they "happened" to be here when they started). And it had a ripple effect. This is what I attribute as the reason of Bangalore becoming the alter ego of Silicon Valley

> Self discipline, honking etc. - aren't specific to Bangalore...The main problem faced by Bangalore is unplanned growth in many aspects. That's what Govt and ppl should work in solving - not honking or not driving in lanes (I don't believe in Westernising everything here...we have a way of life and our accident rates aren't worse when compared with the West!).

> Now, Hyderabad has improved a lot with respect to IT. So are Gurgaon/Noida. I am afraid, sooner or later, Narendra Modi (not that I like him) is going to set his sights on IT seriously (even now he "claims" to do, but I doubt the seriousness behind those claims). If that happens, that'd be interesting (probably be a role model which Bangalore can emulate).

> I don't believe MRTS or carpooling will achieve anything significant (I'm sure they'll achieve something...but nothing significant). And I do not believe small-steps-turning-into-a-complete-change will work always. They need to expand the city (office will move 30 more kms away, are we ready??) with a proper strategy. And take appropriate steps to achieve that strategy.

Mahadev said...

why no new blog entry ...

Anonymous said...

@Karthi:

I hope it's not because of the South Indian onslaught on Rajni on Venkat's log :-)

Sriraj

Rajni said...

Karthi....

Planning to post something soon...

Sriraj,

South Indian onslaught it was :))....but that's not what has kept me away from blogging....I was travelling for sometime....and was busy...