Tag Archives: flyover

Signal free corridor finally mooted to connect Dairy circle to ORR

The government has finally decided to connect Dairy circle and surrounding areas in the interior of the city to the outer ring road at Agara Junction. A notificaiton to this effect appeared in the papers today with the CM going to inagurate the work at Koramangala-Sarjapura road junction anytime this morning.

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This signal free corridor would reduce atleast 5 traffic signals and save enormous amount of time to reach the entire city center or vice-versa the peripheral areas. The flipside of all this is about a year or two’s worth of work which will completely throw traffic out of gear around Koramangala area. For those who are traveling into these areas for their work, good luck!

 

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For those who may not know, the residents of Koramangala opposed an underpass in this area saying that it was not required for the density of the traffic present in the area. But one look at this situation during peak hours would speak reams about the mess created due to ever increasing number of vehicles. It is best if this project is completed in true spirit to enable people from Marathahalli reach Forum in no time, and the other way round. All the people of HSR layout and surrounding areas would also find this beneficial in the longer run.

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Do you like this development? Tell me your opinion in the comments section!

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Silk Board to E-city highway to attract toll from today

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Source: TOI

For those who enjoyed the toll highway from Electronics city to Silk Board in Bengaluru, constructed by NHAI, finally you must get ready to pay toll to use it henceforth. For those going to work, its still a boon and worthwhile investment. And for those investing in Hosur/Attibele/Jigani/Suryanagar, its even more worthwhile in terms of RE investment.

As for me, I did get a chance to enjoy this road, but even as I drove for the first time, came across a horrific accident where a car’s frontage was completely in smoke after hitting the divider. Further on, I noticed only half of a two wheeler which made gory thoughts come to my mind wondering where the driver and the other half of the two wheeler were. If you want to bet on your life, please drive below 80 kmph and in one single lane always. If at all you want to change lanes, its advisable that you give proper indicators for doing the act.

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As for police patrol, its quite strong on the highway and they seem to come over immediately in case there is a problem. There are also digital signboards along the highway making it somewhat techno-gizmo-oriented. The highway itself due to its elevation is a breath of fresh air. Drive slow, and enjoy your drive.

Carlton Fire Accident – will we ever learn?

 

 

(Image courtesy : http://www.mynews.in )

 

The whole city was buzzing with the news of the unfortunate fire accident at Carlton towers, a well known landmark in East Bangalore near the bustling Indiranagar Flyover. There are too many loose ends as usual to the story. No setbacks to the building, all emergency exits were locked (astonishing part of the irony), fire tenders could not reach more than fourth floor, no water nearby and only fire tender in Karnataka to have hydraulic ladders. Neither did fire alarms did not go off in the building, and nor did the water sprinklers.

This was a recipe for perfect disaster and disaster it was – or should I say a shame to the government with due respects. 108 is a great effort by the CM as a nice service to have. Believe me I have personally used 108 and found it ultra effective. Its free as well. But what about FIRE ? The fire engines, equipments, and firemen all belong to 1980 era. Unfortunately no government has spent any money on upgrading the fire handling infrastructure and this is a biggest shame for an IT capital of a country like ours. What more can I say if a water hose does not reach more than fourth floor of a building.

I am totally disqualified to talk of people within that building on that day since I can only feel bad about what they went through, but then one of the basic steps during a fire is to lie low on the floor, with a wet handkerchief around your mouth and nose and start crawling towards the nearest exit. Alas, the biggest cruelty in this accident was to keep the emergency exits locked and the person responsible for this act must be handed the highest sentence as a lesson to learn. If punishment brings about education, then thats what we need today.

The firemen did their best, risked their lives, and are also in the ICU thanks to no gas masks!!! Dear Yeddy, what we need is an urgent order for gas masks of the highest technical capability for our firemen. If they cant help us, we cant help ourselves as well. Even as you read this blog post in every corner of every sub registrar’s office one property violation is being overlooked every 10 minutes. And the blatant fact is that these offices of impurity tell us that “the government has fixed charges for this deal” – may I know what is the meaning of charges here?

Yeddy I know you are a person who feels bad if something happens to the 10 crore people of Karnataka. Well, in the Carlton case, it was only 10 people. Which should still make you feel bad, and lose your sleep. Take the same action what you would if these 10 people were from your own family. Punishment is only one remedy. Enhancement of fire fighting capabilities is the NEXT BIGGEST CHALLENGE. Are we geared up for this?

Picture this: As the fire alarm sets off in my company, and I proceed to take the nearest emergency exit, some people continue working as though nothing happened, some people hear to the alarm as though its AR Rahman’s next pop hit, and some people say “they get annoyed” asking the security to switch it off as soon as possible. And some go to the cafeteria to take a break. Reason given: Its a usual occurence !!

It takes half an hour for fire to engulf entire floors. And suffocate you to death. The next time an alarm rings – GET THE HELL OUT OF THE BUILDING, it would be well worth an attempt. Atleast you can come to office the next day.

 

Our infrastucture experts lag by a decade – KH road flyover mess solved

Ask a small kid and he would have given the solution. Ask an old man and his wiseness would have manifested as a solution. It took the Bengaluru infrastructure experts a few years to come up with a solution to the (stupid) KH Road flyover. What is wrong with the flyover many people might ask. Well I would ask – what is exactly right?

  • Its the world’s only flyover with a signal light at the center
  • Its the world’s only flyover where a cop sits managing traffic at this signal light
  • Its the world’s only flyover which is mismanaged to such an extent that it has made proper roads crooked just because it exists
  • Its the world’s only flyover (perhaps) which can crush an entire road beneath it and the people on it to death in seconds
  • Its the world’s only flyover where the span of the column can be considered so huge to cause regular traffic jams
  • Its perhaps the world’s only flyover that looks like an X in shape!

Yes we are talking about the great Double Road flyover. Finally atleast the mess it has created has been solved to some extent by keeping things the way they must be. See for yourself: (picture courtesy TOI)

Now for some questions on this way of traffic flow:

  • Isn’t one of this enough either mission road to residency road or double road to richmond road, why both ways the traffic now needs to flow on the flyover?
  • Is that design not silly ?
  • The bigger question is whether this flyover is now required at all once you see the traffic flow :) ?
  • If they do decide next to remove this flyover, will it solve any issues if one ways are created accordingly?
  • Must a small stretch of road between richmond circle and VGP junction on double road make life hell ?
  • Will we never see architectural marvels in flyover making at all ?
  • What about the maintenance of such a flyover, what will be its state after say 10 years more ? Would you travel on it or under it ?

The issue is not with building flyovers. The issue is with people designing them and the limited scope of the needs of such a construction, that these people have in their narrow mind. Money flow aside.  Any guesses what the next great architectural marvel would be ? How about an underpass on both sides of this flyover ? Or better still a metro train running under this flyover ? Infrastructure planning is an art. Experience must speak by itself, without even a single question asked. You want an example, see for yourself the better part of Bengaluru infrastucture:

Image courtesy: BMIC – NICE

Mobile DTH or Rain Water Harvesting

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The recent spate of rains is attributed to North East monsoons and to cyclone Nisha (I wonder what’s with the Indian people to nomenclate cyclones just as with USA, but it sure does sound really funny sometimes – cyclone Narakasura, cyclone Ravana, cyclone Anajaneya – it gets funnier the more I think of it!).

The rains have only added to more gloom during the great recession of 2008 and the chilly weather has made it so dull to dampen spirits of attending office at all. The only gloom left is a pink slip with this kind of weather pattern :D

I was driving rather slowly today to office thanks to an early start and empty roads what with schools delcaring a holiday in memory of late VP Singh (yes he died today after a prolonged cancer battle). I am dreading the last day of our own homegrown prime minister – Irrelevant people would block the entire Bengaluru traffic for days, and make us all walk all over the city just to make those memories worse.

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Having said that, near Hebbal flyover I saw this contraption otherwise called an umbrella, but when used in wrong situations could very well serve to harvest rain water, or even function as a mobile DTH service when fitted with the right LNB material! It was quite funny that this umbrella was still serving its purpose in some way or rather in many ways!

And finally every gloomy day has something to cheer about at the end of it, so I leave you with a rainbow over my terrace that made the gloom turn into a bit of cheer!

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