I noticed this article from the times of india, which captured the essence of Koramangala through the mind of Balbir Singh, the owner of Koramangala.com.

Around 17 years ago, Koramangala was nothing short of a pocket of villages. For every small purchase, we had to drive down to Brigade Road. Instances where a Koramangalite would go outdoors after 7 pm were sparse. It was unsafe and autorickshaw drivers always refused to come to Koramangala. This place was dead," says Balbir Singh, who quit his job in the printing & packaging industry to launch the portal koramangala.com along with his wife Amrit Sethi.

Way back in 1984, if someone went out after 7pm, there was no guarantee of him returning home be it a kid or an adult. The biggest set of marshy land regions included what is now the National Games Village, and ST Bed (behind the Maharaja hotel).  Everything beyond that were just groves and groves of cocount trees which could trap an unassuming individual if he trespassed into an unending maze of no-return. From our home, we could see the Mantons crane factory (today otherwise called Raheja Arcade), and St.John’s hospital. While the first five years of my stay did not see anyone owning a television set in Koramangala, after that stage the first few black and white sets started arriving on the scene. Chitrahaar, Chitramanjari, Vartegalu, Blockbuster movies, and the famous moon mission by Rakesh Sharma – were some of the things that raked in crowds. Hordes of children descended on the only house(s) that had TVs and settled down like we were one family, with one goal – watch TV.

Open spaces, tall grasses, St John's Hospital, service roads and, yes, cows. Nobody thought this quiet suburb would be transformed so much. It was more like a brick & mortar village with the typical ration shops around it," recollects Santhosh Kumar, an HR professional, who has been residing in Koramangala since 1984

The Koramangala club membership was a near miss for my father. To keep up the socializing habit, the membership was offered at a mere 500 bucks which those days amounted to a monthly salary of people living there. The founder members had to pitch in about 2000 bucks each with which they would build what is otherwise today called the Koramangala Club with a mind boggling membership amount running into lakhs of rupees.

The entire set of people living in Koramangala 6th Block used to play badminton, shuttle, ring, kho-kho and what not and this included all the adults in each family. Boy, it was such a pleasure to be living here. After my dad, I was the next undisputed badminton champ out here. The next ten years was sheer bliss upto 1995. The locality slowly gained ground in terms of development, and infrastructure to support the growing population was slowly being put in place. Post offices, schools, bus stops, banks, water tanks, electricity board offices, small shops to meet the grocery needs.

Some of the famous names to do business with were Krishna medicals, Vaishnavi stores for stationery (and those new famous pens and pencils), fashion center (for your clothing needs), modern stores and balaji stores (for groceries). The only good hotels years down the line were Sukh sagar, and Utsav Veg. Bethany and Neena schools were the only schools that have withstood the test of time for over 25 years now. So much so was the nostalgia that I can say I could reach my school as the crow flies (diagonally) from my home.

1995 was ushering in the software era, into india, into bangalore, into koramangala in full swing. This was the turning point for the poshness of the locality to start exposing itself. In full glory. for the next ten years. Few of the earliest names to move into Koramangala were Wipro and Infosys.

The phenomenon was now being created.

I always wanted to pen down this story, but time was at premium. It finally finds its way into this blog. This is not a story of a place. Its an article about the phenomenon called Koramangala and my gratitude for a chance to breathe, live and loathe it.

The year was 1983. But we were living in 1682. The mood wasn’t exactly one of jubilation but more of an urgency. An urgency to find a place which we could call our own, in anticipation of a family which would shortly burst at its seams. With many siblings of my father yet to be married, there was never a perfect time for this shift. Our then rented home 1682, in Rajajinagar had a reason to be vacated. With burgeoning rental demands, and for reasons beyond my comprehension when I was just six, and with pressure from everyone around, we had to vacate the place.

Koramangala was neither in the city, nor was a village. At best it wasn’t even lands that belonged to the rich and powerful Reddys those days. It was more of unexplored forest, which BDA decided to tame in the name of site allotments. My father had been allotted a site for five thousand rupees. Five thousand was like a current day fifty lakh figure to him with his rather abysmal salary levels and the last thing he could do was cough up this amount for the property. He had two choices – Koramangala and Indiranagar. While he could somehow locate the former, he was afraid to go to the latter area !!

After a lot of discussion and math crunching all the brothers decided to pitch in for the house so that my dad could enable the change in life. This in my opinion was the beginning and end of a joint family. The beginning was one of happiness and the seeds for the end were being sown not withstanding my oblivion about it.

The nearest  bus stop to Koramangala those days (80’s era) was can-you-believe-it Diary Circle which is a good 3-4 kms away. I would say its good for a heart patient as such, but for the good-for-nothing health freaks that we are, this was way too much. This also is the sole reason why my dad and grandpa are living/lived a healthy life. They walked this distance at least for a couple to three years before the phenomenon started happening. With just six houses for the entire eight blocks of Koramangala, this was nowhere near a phenomenon in the making.

From there what happened until now is the phenomenon.

The road widening hooligans are at it yet again. This time they are aiming to chop off full grown trees alongside the palace road from both cauvery theatre side as well as from TV tower side. Reason is they want to make it a 10-lane road leading to the already glorious (for the wrong reasons) airport. Of course Mr.Srikantadatta being from the royal lineage wants 40 crores per acre or per squarefeet – all this while the government is already mulling whether palace really belongs to him or not in the first place. The palace itself is earning crores of money for all kinds of events and some sundry income from few roadside meters chopped off is a feather in wadiyar's money cap. Here it seems both the government and wadiyar are equally selfish to their own ends. Whether its road widening or underpass or flyover, in the name of infrastructure the government seems to be siphoning off funds here and there in mass scale. No wonder in the recent GIM, the government has sanctioned power projects alone to the tune of some 2 lac crore if i am not mistaken, and pat came the query from the high court asking for the details of such blanket approvals and what exactly were these projects. While industrialization of karnataka is not bad, mass approval of projects without any consulting agency or committee just by the chief minister is a certain invitation for trouble in the short future.

For those of you who have legitimately been thinking of owning a government allotted property in Bangalore here is some good news. The government has listed out in  Prajavani its intention to allot different types of sites/houses and apartments in KHB Suryanagar the most sought after and debated layout near Electronics city/ Anekal area.

The details are as given below:

• 1633 sites are on offer which is meaningless compared to the aspirants
• 487 built houses are on offer as well which are higher on the cost side – more below
• 1577 apartments also on offer which might bring some succor to low income and middle income group people aspiring properties at lower pricing
• Shopping complexes, hospital, school, playground, police station and parks are part of the layout.

Coming to the cost structure – this time its not going to come to you cheap.

Sites:

1. For weaker sections of society – sites are distributed at 300 rupees per sq.ft
2. For Low income group – 500 per sq.ft
3. For middle income group – 550 per sq.ft
4. For HIG – 1 (god only knows who today falls in this category!) – 600 per sq.ft
5. For HIG- 2 it totals 650 per sq.ft

Houses:

1. For LIG a 30×40 house is 15.5 lakhs with 3.87 lacs of initial deposit
2. For MIG a 30×50 house is 18.25 lakhs with 4.56 lacs of initial deposit
3. For HIG – 1 a 40×60 house is 29.5 lacs with 7.37 lacs of initial deposit
4. For HIG – 2 a 50×80 house is 43.75 lacs with 11 lacs of initial deposit

So Where do you get the application forms – Each form is Rs.50/- 

The following bank branches are giving out application forms:

• Axis Bank – Jayanagar, Sanjaynagar, BWSSB complex, Electronics city
• Syndicate Bank – BWSSB complex, Avenue Road, Chandapura Marasuru
• Vijaya Bank – Chandapura
• Canara Bank – Chandapura
• ING Vysya Bank – KG Road Bangalore branch

Phone numbers for enquiries which will never work — 9448070227, 9448671002

If you want more information and you know how to read kannada, click on the attachment below:

Last date for application forms submission is

06th March 2010

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

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.

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.

Technorati : BDA, airport, bangalore, bbmp, bengaluru, bial, blog, box, bus, cars, cbi, circle, concrete, devanahalli, dust, free, freeway, hebbal, infrastructure, jam, junction, karnataka, magic, mekhri, noise, police station, pollution, rt nagar, sanjaynagar, signal, traffic, vehicles

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.

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:

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!

So common BDA open up those barricades soon will ya?

Technorati : BDA, airport, bangalore, bbmp, bengaluru, bial, blog, box, bus, cars, cbi, circle, concrete, devanahalli, dust, free, freeway, hebbal, infrastructure, jam, junction, karnataka, magic, mekhri, noise, police station, pollution, rt nagar, sanjaynagar, signal, traffic, vehicles

If you have been going around Bangalore watching the billboards at major traffic junctions, you would not have missed out seeing this advertisement about the commune apartments from golden gate properties. Their unique selling proposition is apartments at 19 lacs onwards as the pricing. There are a few things that I wanted to voice about this project which I will do here for the benefit of those wanting to invest in it. Firstly it is close to the NICE Corridor done by Ashok Kheny and company. They go on to say on their website that there would be a road leading to their apartment from the clover leaf junction that NICE has constructed in Somapura Village halfway between Kanakapura Road and Mysore Road. More details about this so called road or roads are present in their own website.

What I like about this project is that the apartments look nice for that price range of 19 lakhs and up. Golden Gate properties have been consistently improving on their designs ever since their first few projects in Begur (near Bommanahalli) almost 7-8 yrs back. That is good news. The Commune does have its own share of issues as well which are evident from the above photo (again taken from their website, with due credits to them). The main cluster of apartments have a region on the inside which would have dimly lit areas thanks to minimum sunlight penetration. Elevationally the apartments look good at present, but the free areas surrounding them are surely going to be occupied slowly by all other apartment builders, making life hell around that area sooner than later. Already Kanakapura road is a good example of civilization improving day by day so much so that they had to do double laning of that road upto Konankunte junction.

As far as the plans are concerned, they offer three types of flats, two of 900+ dimension and one of 1100+ dimension. After checking out top views of each of these I found only the Plan 1 reasonably okay in terms of spacing of rooms and privacy. The rest were a bit unimpressive but hey then that is what low cost housing is all about! I did not like the fact that other than the hall, no other room had a balcony provided which is bad. Also the specifications are not so impressive as I have seen in certain other apartments of course at higher costs. Also to be noted is that only 50% of the car parks would be concealed while the rest would be open to the elements, and god save your vehicle in such a case.

According to their own costing sheet the prices for the starting at 19 lacs apartments would now end up to be either 25 lacs or 30 lacs for the bigger one. So is it affordable living? Think again, I sold my apartment at HSR layout for just a thirds more than this.

Two other things really bother me about the Commune. One is that in their walkthrough they show a road from the clover leaf junction all the way upto their apartment complex which in my opinion would never exist. NICE company is smart enough not to provide entry and exit at the clover leaf junction for every tom, dick and harry. Why for that matter I would be surprised if Banashankari 6th Stage BDA layout manages to secure one exit and one entry point into the clover leaf. And in the case that this entry and exit are not provided, the Communists if I may call them so would then have to either reach Ravi Shankars ashram or Mysore Road to secure an entry into the NICE BMIC-Peripheral Ring Road linking Tumkur Road with Electronics City. So I would take this road approach statements and plans with a pinch of salt.

The second most irritating thing is that the compound wall of the Commune directly abuts or is adjancent to Vrishabavathi Valley or river. For those who do not know what this river is all about, dont have your hopes high, here is the wikipedia description of the river – The Vrishabhavathi River is a minor river that flows north of the Indian city of Bangalore. The Vrishabhavathi is a tributary of the Arkavathy River. The majority of the sewage emanating from Bangalore is carried by these two rivers. Click here for more information. If you want to see a map of how the river flows until it reaches a sewage treatment plant on Mysore Road, see the figure below. (note that the blue river flowing behind the apartments in the figure above is the one being spoken about)

So with this said, how would you like to live bang next to a sewage river? My guesses are as good as yours. There are positives with Commune in trying to provide low cost housing in these troubled times, and there are cons of living next to the NICE clover leaf and the VV Valley/River. Once the mysore bangalore corridor is operational the noise levels in the corridor are expected to go up manifold disturbing peace and harmony all around given the fact that we Indians are fond of honking our vehicles even when there is no necessity for doing it.

This review is not about deciding whether the Commune indeed is the next wave of low cost housing and whether it is the best project till date in town as far as low cost housing is concerned. But it does touch upon the projects highlights to meritoriously put forth a few points to note before investing into it.

Technorati : 3d floor plans, anjanapura, apartments, approval, art of living, ashok kheny, ashram, banashankari 6th stage, bannerghatta road, bda, begur, bmic, bommanahalli, commune, electronics city, family mart, ggproperties, golden gate properties, hsr layout, kanakapura road, konankunte, kumarans, low cost housing, magadi road, mantri, metro, mysore road, nice, peripheral road, ravi shankar, ring road, sewage treatment plant, singapore gardens, south bangalore, spencers, tumkur road, vakils, vrishabhavathi river

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So what are you waiting for? Check out the best web hosts of 2008 and sign up with the one you think is worth it in your opinion. Make an informed decision and get the best for your website!

Nowadays I have become a frequent traveler on Bellary road to my office and I cant help but ponder over the status of the CBI junction magic box work that is going on for almost months together now. Yesterday I happened to see a hoarding put up and I almost from its apperance thought that its ready for inaguration. But however upon looking closer I made out that without even tarring up the road, it was next to impossible to inagurate it.

Then upon looking even closer, I realized that its the Ganganagar BJP unit, which had put up the hoarding to welcome Rajnath Singh and Advani to Bangalore. I am sort of miffed with the way BJP is operating just because it has got a long term government in place. They dont seem to realize that roads are chaotic everywhere, and absolutely no progress has been made towards resolving these issues amongst other infrastructural ones pending so far.

With this said I do hope that they finish up CBI junction magic box on time and then we must have a smooth drive all the way from Raj Bhavan upto Hebbal Flyover and beyond!

Technorati : BBMP, BDA, CBI junction, bangalore, bengaluru, bjp, blog, central, ganganagar, hebbal flyover, high command, infrastructure, lk advani, magic box, rajnath singh, sanjaynagar