Tag Archives: airport

Nandi hills to get artificial waterfall, and splash pad and other facilities

Today’s paper carries a tender call for Nandi hills to be upgraded as a tourist destination in the true sense. It is not very clear what facilities will be provided, but the nandi hills is sure to get an artificial waterfall a-la-Courtallam simulation at kishkinta water park chennai.

ScreenHunter 01 Aug

 

Besides that there is also going to be a splash pad which is a water area without standing water. Unlike many wave pools that are part of Wonder La, or Innovative Film city or other theme parks the splash pad is quite the contrary concepts which does not mandate any heavy cleaning procedures since the area dries up naturally. it will be a great pastime for kids as indicated by the pictures on this blog.

The estimated time for completion of these is 8 months which means by next July it should be ready for enjoyment. It clearly goes to show the importance that the GoK is giving for the development of the area next to the Airport and Nandi Hills seem to be their best bet yet. Karnataka continues to build on its tourist policies slowly but steadily and this will surely put it in the right spot given the number of yearly visitors to the silicon city of India.

 

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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.

 

Abracadabra, and finally BDA works its CBI magic!

Today morning the magic finally unraveled itself in full glory. Without any official brouhaha. I was the first car at the Sanjaynagar traffic signal. And when the signal went green, I zoomed from that signal to hebbal – all in less than one minute. Kudos BDA, yet another feather on your infrastructure cap. Good work done.

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I just wanted to be sure that even the return journey was profitable. I left office at 5:40pm. After a hiccup of 5-7 mins at Nagawara traffic signal, I managed to reach hebbal flyover by 5:50pm. From there I clocked my drive upto Raj Bhavan and it was 12 minutes. Fantastic!

Erstwhile one had to spend about anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes in the stop and go traffic before the CBI magic box, as you drove from Hebbal, and another 5 minutes of harrowing bone rattling car breaking drive next to it.

Today it took 10 seconds to cross all of that mess. Wonderful. I can’t describe my feelings. Pictures convey more. See for yourself. :)

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BDA experiments on CBI junction magic box

It seems to be that BDA is doing this out of self frustration, or desperation to meet deadlines towards making the BIAL route signal free. So much so that they are testing the uncompleted CBI junction by allowing vehicles to go through always in only one direction at any time.

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Though the CBI magic box is a much better designed magic box than the BDA junction one (which by all means needs to get the “Worst infrastructure project of the year award”), one still cant understand how this magic box is gonna work. Lets try and do some analysis here:

There is one magic box between RT nagar entrance and the other side, and there is another more nearer to the police station side. one possible way of traffic entry and exit could be as shown below:

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The question mark in this figure is the place where there could likely be a signal of some sort !! and maybe more confusions too in future! Whatever it is BDA, you have got the access to BIAL through somehow and thats probably what you would be looking at in future as well and not really bother how the other people would fight it out isnt it? :)

I for once want this magic box to be opened up real soon and I am tired of all the dust and chaos this junction is undergoing at the moment. Lets hope for the best!

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So common BDA open up those barricades soon will ya?

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Vayu Vajra – the new face of volvo travel to the Bengaluru International Airport

By now you would have read about BMTC commissioning new volvo buses to take people from the new Bengaluru International airport to their homes and the other way round. I actually got a chance to have a look at one of these on my way back home. On perceptions this is more or less similar to the ones already ferrying people around the city, except for the luggage space in the front. This bus is a 30 seater with seating at back while all luggages are in the front of the bus. The only grouse is whether the buses would be able to handle luggage enough for 30 people at any point even considering each person may end up carrying atleast 2 suitcases (one big and one small).

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New Volvo Vajra buses with luggage space in the front of the bus

My initial impressions is one of surprise since I think for 30 people this bus is gonna be very congested for the luggage section. The only succour though would be that the bus is airconditioned and people can feel good sitting and traveling in it compared to say a cab or even an auto. BMTC has started this initiative in the right earnest and one only hopes they add more to this fleet of Vayu Vajra’s traversing the city!

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For more detailed information on Vayu Vajra volvo prices and routes, click here

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Bye Bye Beauties

My previous post had only pictures of the planes taking off. For my unfortunate luck it so happened that the wind direction was towards Marathahalli the day before, and hence all planes were landing from that direction. However luck smiled on me yesterday when the wind direction was towards inner ring road, and hence all planes were landing from this side. I was a bit disgusted that I could not get proper pictures of these planes for my last post, but lo and behold, this time I did it. With the imminent opening of the BIAL, these are the last few pictures I would have ever managed to shoot on my terrace for a long long time to come.So let the pictures do the talking! The sky was rather overcast yet again yesterday and I have adjusted my camera settings for maximum exposure level. I can only take aircraft photos, I can’t control nature ;)

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Jet Airways Boeing 737 : 5-45pm

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Kingfisher Airbus A 320: 5-50pm

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Go Air Airbus A 320: 6:25 pm

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Spicejet Boeing 737 : 6-30pm

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Air Deccan ATR – 6:40 pm

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Magic box – 72 hr box ready in one month- Bengaluru to see more ….

Infrastructure upgrades are something any Bangalorean will appreciate at all times. And the BBMP had started off one such project of installing MAGIC BOXES all over the place on Bellary road leading to the new Devanhalli International Airport. The earnest and direction was finally clear and a Malaysian company provided the technology to create single lane underpasses within 72 hours. This time was only for casting the boxes and making them ready where as the other road activities were supposed to be done in parallel. The excited BBMP started digging up Sankey Road in full swing only to break a huge water pipe laid by their own cousins – the BWSSB – making it a costly mistake since it cut off water supply to North Bangalore for days together! Some mistakes can be corrected but they will take their own time due to the mess and complexity created years back when such plans were not in place.

The BBMP and BWSSB started finger pointing at each other but this time they had to only save their skins with the project progressing. No excuses would be tolerated at the cost of progress was the clear message. So the commissioner took this up personally, camped at the site all night to rectify the problem in the right earnest. Finally the BWSSB and BBMP spat was over and they worked together to still try and realize the goal even after 72 hours. People almost started condemning these authorities for yet another broken promise. But the BBMP was ready to take all brickbats at the cost of progress. In fact the airport completion came as a severe blow to infrastructure planners who were otherwise lethargic. Now they had to pull up their socks and complete their side of the work. To add to their misery neither a train system could be ready nor were there any other alternative roads that led to the airport. This put severe pressure on BBMP to make Bellary road traffic free. And there were no excuses to be taken this time. The public were ready to fly at a rage to ridicule the authorities if they did not work. The LEAD INDIA effect started showing in their thoughts and faces.

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(All images courtesy the times of india, dated 21- FEB – 2008)

So finally today the MAGIC BOX was finally opened up to the public much to their relief. Though slighty complicated, on using the road once one can understand how to go about this concept of infrastructure. The only thing one cant do now is to take a right turn on sankey road from mekhri circle. Instead one will have to upto BDA junction (windsor manor bridge) and take a U-Turn on a similar magic box which would be installed there to come back to cauvery theatre and take a left towards Sankey Road. Vehicles from Sankey road can go underneath the box and take a right towards MG Road or go over the box and take left to merge with traffic towards Bellary road. So that leaves the people coming from windsor manor bridge who would need to go left at Cauvery junction, take U-turn a little ahead and take left again to go to Bellary road.

One month was pretty quick to solve the problem of signal woes with the MAGIC BOX. hopefully in two more months, without breaking more pipes, the BDA junction, Sanjaynagar junction, and Sahakarnagar junction would have MAGIC BOXES. I only hope Mr.Commissioner then thinks of doing the same MAGIC at the following junctions please!

  1. Old Madras Beninganahalli Bridge junction
  2. KR puram – Banaswadi flyover junction
  3. KR puram railway station
  4. HP junction on ITPB road
  5. Garudacharpalya junction on ITPB road
  6. Bhoruka park junction on ITPB road
  7. Hoodi Circle
  8. Bellandur junction on outer ring road
  9. Intel junction on ORR
  10. HRBR – Babusapalya junction on ORR
  11. Hennur road junction on ORR
  12. Thanisandra junction on ORR
  13. Nagawara junction on ORR
  14. Kasturinagar – ORR junction

Good job BBMP and keep giving us more such MAGIC tricks! :)

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