[Rocky_Balboa]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Solution = Peeschute

Thanks Latheesh ; didnt know such a product existed, ordered a travel-kit already.

[sachinpk]

Not a rant as such. For some reason today (14/09/2022) I found lesser number of vehicles on road today. From my home, I started 10 mins late but even then reached office on the usual time. My trouble starts from the top of Silk Board flyover, but today even here there were less number of vehicles. Don't know if it is the work from home effect, today being mid-week.

[sou_3749]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

15 odd kms in 3.5 hrs is slightly above average for non-rain, non-flooding bangalore traffic

Which Bangalore is it
I know this is pure fun but far from truth.

Even the Volvo busses running between Electronics City and Airport covering 60kms used to take 2-3 hours depending on traffic which covers the entire notorious stretch of ORR with horible traffic.

I used to drive from Bellandur to Manyata during peak hours which is 24kms. I have never spent more than 2 hours even with rains(no flooding though).

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Don't know if it is the work from home effect, today being mid-week.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays see a lot less traffic post the pandemic. Start of the week blues, Midweek tiredness and weekend optimism the reasons respectively. I have simply begun to leave home in the 740 to 750 slot as it sees the school buses reducing and minimal office commuters.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

I personally know several people who walked various distances to get to office that day, but bunch of 'techies' walking to office to write code and do whatever they do on the laptops- For the media-nah, nothing interesting there.

Don't think so NDTV would agree with you . NDTV was running a live commentary of 'techies' going on tractors and pointing to offices where they would be working from, and how tough their commute was. The NDTV anchor never asked them what their employer was doing to help them? Work From Home was possible or not? The media as usual tried to make this a catastrophic event and used the 'techies' as the useful idiots.

Originally Posted by kovilkalai

Encroachment doesn't mean that we have built ON the drain. It means that our boundary wall is closer by a few feet to the drain than it should be. Further, the BBMP is claiming that the storm water drain should actually be wider than it actually is.

There are a set of bye-laws at the BBMP, TMC levels which defines the setback area etc. So in the above case, the rule regarding setback area was not followed. On the width of the storm water drain, there should be some village records which would have sketch of the whole area. The reason for asking walls to be a bit away from the edge of the storm water drain would be considering the future needs.

If the storm-water drains were encroached and should have been wider, how did practically everyone along this drain get plan approvals from government bodies?

When a person plans to build a home at a site, he files an affidavit (usually in legal Kannada) in which he accepts sole responsibility for any thing which can practically go wrong. That includes set back rules violation, buidling a home on a piece of land which was not meant to build a home, building homes in area which was classified as forest land etc. With this affidavit the house owner is pretty much accepting that he will NOT hold the government body responsible when things go wrong. These affidavits are all ready-made document templates and a lawyer generally gets the signature on the final document (with the signatory not understanding what he is commiting to). Without this affidavit, the building plan approval will never come. It could be with scheme that all these people got approvals from government bodies. Also in Bangalore it is very common that people keep two plans. One - fully in compliance with law - for getting approvals, and then another plan based on one's needs & likings. So we cannot say that a home, or apartment building standing in full compliance with the law just because an approval (one time activity) is given.

There was some extensive work done at Varthur kodi where the storm water drain was connected to the Varthur lake.

From what I remember. First they had built a huge net between the lake and the Varthur-Whitefield road. This was to avoid the froth from the lake entering the road. Next; a wider bridge was getting built and for this the water flow had to be redirected. AFAIK the wider bridge is now open for traffic so the water flow should be on the old route.

Make it easy for people to verify whether their builder is doing something dodgy.

100% agreed. To be frank the whole system of buying a piece of land and building a home is very complex with multiple agencies involved. So much so that, we had "consultants" who worked in this domain for many years now. It may be the first "consulting" job in India. Many of these illegal constructions, encroachments also have happened in the early 2000s when lot of things happened way too quickly and many people not aware of the legal aspects. Today I see that many of the new home buyers are smart and at least get the documents verified by lawyer.

[rajwheelz]

A senior VP visits our office. The first of such visits post COVID. And that necessitated my travel from Bangalore North to EcoWorld. First drive after March 2020 .

And guess what? Same tummy churning feeling, same muscling in by some impatient drivers, same weaving in/out of bus lanes. I didn't enjoy a bit at all contrary to my earlier night excitement of "Whoohoo, I am going back to office".

Got another set of meetings tomorrow too. And I will take a cab. I am sticking to that until metro arrives.

I've seen all the treachery that route threw at me. Construction of Ecospace flyover, construction of EMC flyover, then dig up for white topping, rains, floods and now metro construction.

Not anymore ! I'm hanging up my driving boots.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by rajwheelz

A senior VP visits our office. The first of such visits post COVID. And that necessitated my travel from Bangalore North to EcoWorld. First drive after March 2020 .

And guess what? Same tummy churning feeling, same muscling in by some impatient drivers, same weaving in/out of bus lanes. I didn't enjoy a bit at all contrary to my earlier night excitement of "Whoohoo, I am going back to office".

Got another set of meetings tomorrow too. And I will take a cab. I am sticking to that until metro arrives.

I've seen all the treachery that route threw at me. Construction of Ecospace flyover, construction of EMC flyover, then dig up for white topping, rains, floods and now metro construction.

Not anymore ! I'm hanging up my driving boots.

Lol am surprised even after reading so much about that stretch you drove down form north bangalore? What did you expect?

I hung up my office driving boots since offices reopened post covid. Pre-covid used to drive 4 days a week, no more have that patience specially since metro construction started. Use cabs now no matter what, whenever headed to ORR. Generating employment for cabbies in the process you see

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

15 odd kms in 3.5 hrs is slightly above average for non-rain, non-flooding bangalore traffic

Err no. My offices are across two locations - the (famous) Ecospace and one in Bannerghatta Road. Both about 17 and 15 kms from my place. Have been going to office over last 5 months (1-3 times a week) using a mix of car and bike (mostly car). Maximum time I have spent is 2 hours and the number of times I have spent more than 1.5H is less than 5. Median time is 50 mins for me; least being 35 mins. My route to Bellandur is through routes that gets flooded. I head to Bellandur more than I do to Bannerghatta Road.

I understand for many routes / areas, the traffic is horrendous across any time of the day and any time of the year but it doesn't represent the entire city.

[gnome]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Only they have the overreaching powers to teach the nexus a proper lesson.

NGT tried real hard to fix Bellandur-Varthur lakes, but state govt managed to get them off their necks. Apart from a few half-functional STPs, nothing got done! As long as Centre keeps looking away, NGT also won't help.

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Today I see that many of the new home buyers are smart and at least get the documents verified by lawyer.

If one takes home loan from SBI etc. the bank also does the same. So there are 2 parties searching for any irregularities in ownership and out-of-plan constructions. They send an engineer to verify on site, after all, it is the bank's investment when they give us loan.

I think banks should also be more diligent before approving the loan, because they have more resources and network, so it is much easier for them than an individual, in many cases who correspond only with the lawyer because he cannot read the local script.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by mayukh42

I think banks should also be more diligent before approving the loan, because they have more resources and network, so it is much easier for them than an individual, in many cases who correspond only with the lawyer because he cannot read the local script.

Some of the big scams in banks not fully uncovered are legal team-developer nexus, engineer-developer nexus, and bank-developer nexus.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by mayukh42

If one takes home loan from SBI etc. the bank also does the same. So there are 2 parties searching for any irregularities in ownership and out-of-plan constructions. They send an engineer to verify on site, after all, it is the bank's investment when they give us loan.

Just to be clear, its never the bank's investment when they give you a loan. If the site/building is later declared as illegal, you are entitled to still pay the debt to the bank.

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by m8002?

f the site/building is later declared as illegal, you are entitled to still pay the debt to the bank.

Yes, but there will be legal complications and court dates which banks will not want to get into. Would they want to sign a mortgage deed where the property is likely to be disputed?

EDIT: getting back to the topic of the thread, yesterday while returning from airport took the Doddajala Railway bridge exit, following the cabbies. It is in very good shape and I did not lose any time over normal route, and probably saved 50 bucks. However, it does not seem to be easily accessible onward. Anybody has experience with the other exit, i.e. BK Halli road?

By the way, the airport parking seems to have a lot of cars parked long term. One car even had the cover dangling by the side (due to wind). Not sure why long term parking is allowed in that area otherwise mentioned as short term.

[binand]

Originally Posted by m8002?

If the site/building is later declared as illegal, you are entitled to still pay the debt to the bank.

Yeah but that becomes a huge problem for the bank. In such circumstances most people will stop paying EMIs. So the loan defaults, and the collateral itself will be inaccessible to the bank. They will be forced to classify the loan as NPA with all the problems associated with that move.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by mayukh42

If one takes home loan from SBI etc. the bank also does the same. So there are 2 parties searching for any irregularities in ownership and out-of-plan constructions. They send an engineer to verify on site, after all, it is the bank's investment when they give us loan.

There is a catch here as well. Home builders often submit a different plan & estimates to the bank surveyor/appraiser. Perhaps to get a higher loan amount etc. So there are multiple plans floating around. One for BBMP/BDA/TMC, one for the bank for loan estimations and another one which will be what actually the home owner wants. So banks also will NOT be in a position to detect irregularity during the construction. For example, encroachments done during construction cannot be detected by banks.

Originally Posted by m8002?

If the site/building is later declared as illegal, you are entitled to still pay the debt to the bank.

Originally Posted by binand

Yeah but that becomes a huge problem for the bank. In such circumstances most people will stop paying EMIs.

And that is when your friendly neighbourhood Goonda/Goon/Muscleman steps in. Harassments can start by crank calls, threats and often mild physical violence. Many of the so-called new generation banks retain these folks with the name 'recovery agents'. And it is these banks which sit right on the builder's office premises offering loan in 48 hours etc. Nationalised banks are better as they do more thorough checks, but with a waiting time of three months. If you notice many builders/developers do NOT have tie ups with nationalised banks for this very reason.