the Bengaluru blog

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

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).

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!

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

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Vayu, Vajra, Volvo, Bmtc, Tripathi, Upendra, Bial, Bengaluru, International airport, Devanahalli, Bellary road, Hyderabad, Airconditioned, Buses, Flights, Bengaluru, Bangalore, Blog, Airport, Electronics city

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

Jet Airways Boeing 737 : 5-45pm

Kingfisher Airbus A 320: 5-50pm

Go Air Airbus A 320: 6:25 pm

Spicejet Boeing 737 : 6-30pm

Air Deccan ATR – 6:40 pm

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Aircraft, Photos, Jet airways, Air deccan, Go air, Spicejet, Kingfisher, ATR, Airbus, Boeing, 737, 320, Marathahalli, Inner ring road, Ejipura signal, Domlur, Golf view, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka, Blog, Airport, Bial, International airport, Devanahalli, Terrace, Bellary road, Flyovers, Canon, Rebel XTi, Life in Bengaluru, HAL, BIAL, Bengaluru International Airport, Planes, Kingfisher, Spicejet, Indigo, Goair, Airdeccan, Jetlite, Jet airways, Indian, Airlines, Flights, Cargo, Lufthansa, Air france, Malaysian airlines, Thai airlines, Singapore airlines, British airways, Emirates, Hindustan aeronautics limited, NAL, National aerospace labs, Bengaluru, Blog, Koramangala, Chalagatta, Karnataka, Wind tunnel road, Golf view, Inner ring road, Marathahalli, Kingfisher

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.

(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!

Technorati Tags: Earn the dough, Technology, Magic box, Old madras road, Kr puram, Bangalore, Bbmp, Bwssb, Water pipe break, North bangalore, Bial, Airport, Devanahalli, HP, ITPB, Garudacharpalya, Hoodi, Intel, Bellandur, HRBR, Hennur, Thanisandra, Nagawara, Kasturinagar, Sankey road, BDA junction, MG road, Bengaluru, Blog, Cauvery theatre, Lead india, Rk misra