[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Remote work is here to stay and I am sure it is for the good - for our bursting-at-seams metros and more importantly, for good quality of life that every human being is entitled to.

We need to see how the remote working system will further develop. At least two companies I know are going for a hybrid model; but with a caveat that people have to be in Bangalore or suburbs and should be able to come to office at short notice. There would also be lots of people who fortunately or unfortunately have got entrenched in Bangalore. Spouses also employed, children going to local schools etc.

Originally Posted by gtonsing

Of course, they could have been a little future forward but who could have guessed the speed at which this lovely city would grow? I think even the best urban planners would have been stumped.

Getting a bit nostalgic here. In 1997-1998 time period; the land between Bayappanahalli & Krishnarajapuram used to be farm lands. Kasturi Nagar etc did not even exist. The hanging bridge did not exist and a wide road after KJM station went towards Hoskote side (after crossing a level crossing). A medium sized road deviated to the right before the level crossing and that went towards Whitefields. The area next to the road had many independent houses/villas with a few small industries. ITPL was just getting readied. Areas like Kadugodi was just a typical Karnataka village with a Sai Baba Ashram and a residential school.

ORR existed in bits and pieces and was just a normal road. Even in 2002-2003 the ORR-Sarjapur Road junction was a small way side junction with a military detachment camp and few shops (which primarily sold military stuff). Parts of Harlur village was used as the artillery firing range, and a near by lake was also the swimming pool for the soldiers from the detachment camp.

IRR was also getting readied, but people were scared to use the road after night fall. BMTC for many years did not run bus services via this road. And no fly over at Domlur.

On the south eastern side, Diary circle (it was a circle - no fly overs) was like the last stop within the city proper. Madivala check post used to be the place where the private buses had the final stopping point. Wipro and Infosys had their mega campuses in EC first. I still remember going to Thogur village (the area opposite Velankanni in EC) to buy Toddy from the coconut orchards out there.

Originally Posted by SoumenD

Infact one of the big guns(i.e. Wipro) is moving out towards SJP(the new Wipro campus).

Wipro has this scheme to move into new buildings which have fresh SEZ licenses (to claim tax rebate). When EC-1 completed 7 years, they launched the EC-2 campus followed by the twin towers (S1 & S2). Now they have shifted to Sarjapur Road near Carmalaram RS. The old buildings are now being taken up by smaller IT companies.

All said and done the initial plan for the Metro seems to be considering the Bangalore of early 1990s. Peenya (industrial area), Magadi Road, Jaya Nagar/J.P Nagar and Bayappanahalli all would have been pretty much the city borders. Those were the days when buses like Lava Kusha etc used to ply between Bangalore and areas like Sarjapura, Chandapura, Anekal etc. They used to even allow passengers on top of the bus.

[Grimlock]

Police to start fining people taking shelter under flyovers during rains-

https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...37071.ece/amp/

Maybe the people will find it easier to move along if they could actually see the roads when commuting?

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

...Can you speak the local language, especially argue fluently when you are in any tough situation? If not, you are an outsider.

Wait, so my colleague who lives in Chennai, stays in a PG during the week in Bangalore, and scoots back to Chennai every Friday afternoon is a local and I am not? Sounds skewed.

My boss is from TN but has been living in Bangalore from last 25 years. Doesn't speak Kannada or Hindi. He'll be surprised to know that he's an outsider. Not breaking this news to him now.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Wipro and Infosys had their mega campuses in EC first. I still remember going to Thogur village (the area opposite Velankanni in EC) to buy Toddy from the coconut orchards out there.

+1

Back in 2004, during our training days, when we had free time, we would go roam around the fields opposite the Infosys campus in EC. Back then, the EC offices would seem in the middle of nowhere with only a straight highway connecting to the city (silk board junction was the first proper main city point). BTM Layout used to be dusty and a 'growing' outskirts suburb of bangalore - one that was affordable to freshers working in EC offices.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Grimlock

Police to start fining people taking shelter under flyovers during rains-

It sounds bad from a humanitarian perspective but it has become a menace. In most cases one side of the underpass would be waterlogged and there would be motorists taking shelter on the other. People who are apprehensive of driving in the waterlogged stretch will end up holding traffic behind them.

There are multiple parties to be blamed here, right from why underpasses get waterlogged, but one wrong must not be an excuse for another wrong. But I am not sure how the fining part will work, since cops wont even be able to reach these spots if there is a hold up. Thats the sad state of affairs we are in.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Wait, so my colleague who lives in Chennai, stays in a PG during the week in Bangalore, and scoots back to Chennai every Friday afternoon is a local and I am not? Sounds skewed.

My boss is from TN but has been living in Bangalore from last 25 years. Doesn't speak Kannada or Hindi. He'll be surprised to know that he's an outsider. Not breaking this news to him now.

Unfortunately, that's how the greedy and corrupt locals treat you. Have had first-hand experience when my friend's car was rear-ended by a drunk driver at a drink-and-drive check on new year's eve.

[adi_gt]

After reading through these many comments from past few days, I see many wonderful suggestions 1) Strengthening Public Transport 2). City Planning to be more holistic and organic , greed of the builders and politician mafia needs to be curtailed 3.) Which company is shifting operations from and to which area. I fully agree to most of these points. But no one (at least that is my impression) talked about the condition of roads across all the *hallis,*palyas,*puras and on ORR. Narrow roads is something which we can't do much about apart from avoiding parking on the sides. Road surface across East Bengaluru is one of the major reasons for jams where heavy vehicles/autos/ not so proficient drivers/riders tend to slow down with huge traffic snarls. 90-95% internal roads (which could be utilized in case of jams on the main road) are dug up. Huge craters.
e.g if you want to travel from Kadugodi to Gunjur-Dommasandra on a Saturday afternoon - What are your options 1. Bear the brunt of Hopefarm,Whitefield,Varthur,Gunjur traffic which is impossible. 2 Take the side road from Kadugodi to FCI to Immadhalli - Gunjur . All these roads are dug up for last 3 years I have been travelling. 3 Take the Kadugodi - Belathur- Kodigehalli-Hoodi-Graphite - Rainbow Hospital and ORR - Kadubesanhalli-Sarjapur road - Dommasandra . Basically its a dead option. I am sure there are many other side roads, permutations and combinations but the basic point is -> Next to impossible to find one decent patch of road surface on internal roads. Just look at the Dinnur Main road behind Hopefarm junction which used to be a beautiful road - See the conditions now. It appears like a warzone on both ends. BTW it was relaid last year after wave 2.

On top what appears like a perfectly OK road in Bangalore ( our expectations have been lowered accordingly), we have side cuttings, manholes jutting out like volcanoes, deep depressions laced with mud and dirt. Indentions and shoddy patch work is the de facto status of our streets in East Bengaluru. Add to that the ORR and Metro work and general lack of discipline of driving by all kind of boards - yellow, white, black, green even red boards. I have to find one single crossing across East Bengaluru where the junction on 4 sides is OK to cross. eg. Hopefarm junction, Varthur Kodi, Kundalhalli, Channasandra, Cloud 9 ITPL just to name a few. Let's not even go inside the main roads - village roads inside deep Naxal areas in other parts of India are better. Everywhere its either dug up before the junction or bang in the middle of the junction.

And most importantly, they never patch up and even if they do - its with such substandard quality that it doesn't even stand for 2-3 days. No road which gets side cuttings due to digging ever gets a fresh tar, it's just patched up with very simple layer of tar (after 2 years of digging) which gets depressed due to our overloaded trucks in a very short time and that portion becomes permanently unusable. eg. Mayura Bakery to Varthur Kodi in Whitefield.

"Bhara baitha hun "

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Grimlock

Police to start fining people taking shelter under flyovers during rains-

https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...37071.ece/amp/

Maybe the people will find it easier to move along if they could actually see the roads when commuting?

Rubbish! Do they not know about monsoons and the ability to cover themselves with a rain-proof material OR not venture out at all? Sheer cussedness and deplorable lack of civic courtesy. I personally have zero sympathy for such people. I'm a regular sufferer at Hebbal & Mekhri Circle from such folks

Next time, I'll also triple park with hazards on the minute I see any rain.

[car_addict]

What is going on in Malleshwaram? All major roads have been stripped open & dug up.
1. Entire Sampige Road is being white-topped. Now the finished sections have both the left and right side dug up for laying pipes.
2. Both 15th Cross and 16th Cross are being dug up for pipelines
3. 3/4 of the 15th Cross road in front the Varun Maruthi Showroom has been dug up by BESCOM for underground transformer.
4. 3/4 of the road near Mantri Mall has been dug up for drainage work
5. Entire section of the road from Circle Maramma to Yeshwanthpur Circle is being white-topped. All traffic on this road has been diverted to 17th cross and BHEL.
6. Guess where one more pipe work has started. Of Course on 17th Cross near Orion Mall.
7. Just a few weeks ago, during the repair of the Railway Over-bridge on Ring Road, all the traffic was diverted through these roads. Luckily the bridge was re-opened for traffic.

All major entry/exit points along with main roads have been dug-up. Where should people go? Traffic has become a nightmare in the area.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by audioholic

It sounds bad from a humanitarian perspective but it has become a menace.
...
There are multiple parties to be blamed here, right from why underpasses get waterlogged, but one wrong must not be an excuse for another wrong.

Agree. I'm one of those 2 wheeler owners when caught up in rain (with/wo a raincoat) prefer to just keep going irrespective of how wet I get. Always been clear on this in Mumbai, Pune & now Bangalore rains.

But I'm aware not everyone has the ease to make that decision - many times they have a passenger and the risk amplifies by leaps & bounds. Or they were dumb enough not to carry a raincoat. Or they aren't confident on the condition of the road under flowing water with zero visibility of the craters and/or bad roads underneath the rain water that fills up the roads during rains.

But I'm guessing this is just a knee-jerk reaction in response to the recent accidents that have happened at under-passes due to such vehicles jamming up there. Don't think there's going to be much penalizing actually on the road for sure. It's like the random predictions/visions that our current Minister for Road Transport & Highways keeps postulating with regards to the future of tolls

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Rubbish! Do they not know about monsoons and the ability to cover themselves with a rain-proof material OR not venture out at all?

A bit of empathy please. I get it what you are cribbing about but it's not all black and white (ref. to @audioholic's point above).

What if we car owners were penalized for driving alone in a car; with our big vehicles taking up way more space than an individual would require on the road? That's a random illogical question but still true - if most of us car owners choose not to get the car out especially when we are driving alone, the traffic situation would also improve by a small but significant factor.

P.s. The above is a rhetorical Q (and quite illogical/impractical I must state upfront). Will not be responding to counter-arguments/replies

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Agree. I'm one of those 2 wheeler owners when caught up in rain (with/wo a raincoat)...

I am going one step further:

How about the death penalty for the officials responsible for the section of road and other infrastructure if a two wheeler rider is injured or dies because of any reason when it rains?

How about the death penalty for any non-two-wheeler driver if a two-wheeler rider is hit by the vehicle (or even touched) and the two-wheeler rider is injured or dies?

I am sure the first reaction of the officials would be to close down all roads and stop any movement on the roads.

Non-two-wheeler drivers would stop driving at the first sign of rain.

[binand]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

I'm one of those 2 wheeler owners when caught up in rain (with/wo a raincoat) prefer to just keep going irrespective of how wet I get.

My preference is the opposite - since I wear specs and a full-face helmet, even the slightest rain significantly affects my ability to see the road ahead. I can go a little bit by keeping the visor up but it is not a position I'm comfortable with, so I look for places to break my journey (I don't do it under flyovers though).

Also see the video of a biker dashing against a bus taking a right turn, in the accidents thread (which I believe happened because of rain-induced visibility issues).

Anyway, I've sold my scooter and don't plan to buy another soon. So that's that.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by mvadg

I am going one step further:

How about the death penalty for the officials responsible for the section of road and other infrastructure if a two wheeler rider is injured or dies because of any reason when it rains?

This is exactly the sort of mindset that has ruined our country. Police increase fines, people protest against bad roads. Police catch offenders, people complain about police not regulating traffic. Bad roads are of course a problem. Traffic offenders are also a problem. Just because there are potholes on the road, can you justify zig zag driving by both cars and two wheelers and coming into the way of other motorists, causing an accident? Hence we are going nowhere with this mindset of dragging in issues to cover some other issue. Slowly wrong side driving will also become a norm, with the justification of bad roads. Some colleagues of mine even justified not wearing helmet because roads are bad and that's more dangerous.

Wherever in social media I see posts about traffic enforcement, people rant about bad roads. But shouldn't the rant be made elsewhere, ie BBMP? Similarly yesterday everyone complained about the police officer's statement about fining people taking shelter in an underpass. Thats not a shelter in the first place and yet everyone started blaming poor infrastructure and roads.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

A bit of empathy please.

No sympathy from me I'm afraid. Best to do the empathy check with the thousands of ordinary commuters stuck in their bikes, cars & buses either trying to get home or reach KIAL, or the multiple ambulances with their sirens wailing helplessly.

If 2W folks want to shelter from the monsoons, they are free to do so without blocking major arteries like Bellary Road. Maybe BBMP can build wayside shelters on vacant land?

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by audioholic

This is exactly the sort of mindset that has ruined our country. Police increase fines, people protest against bad roads...

We are not going to change our mindset anytime soon!

Did higher fines result in fewer fatal accidents? What does the data say? Who pays for the enormous losses due to flooding of major roads? Why was no action taken proactively? Why the speedbreakers on national highways, that too just in certain sections? What was the issue and why this solution? Why 30 kmph on a section of the BETL expressway? Did it reduce fatal accidents? Did the 60 kmph speed limit improve anything?


Obvious that if there are no consequences for damage to public and private property, our officials will continue with their current behavior.

Accountability will ensure that our officials enforce sane rules to bring in improvements and change everyone's mindset.