[shankar.balan]

All the prime old areas of each of our cities were built "along with nature" and the flow of water etc.

Even our traditional builders in olden times didn't make foolish greedy short sighted decisions like these new age planners and builders do.

The root cause is poor planning, rampant corruption and the desperate need to house zillions of working immigrants into each city of ours. Rather than build brand new fully organised satellite towns with all the mod cons and create newer semi urban areas in the hinterland, the respective successive governments of each state have collectively ruined this country and its towns and cities over the last 70 odd years since Independence.

Right up to the 1980's the quality of planning and building and design was still good, because there were high quality civil engineers and town planners who worked smartly and hard, building a legacy for the future. They built along with the original colonial infrastructure and made things comfortable - just look at all the government layouts and townships in places like Jamshedpur and Kudremukh and Dhanbad and so on...first class.

Todays zillions and zillions of newly minted engineers from squillions of these second rate or third rate newly minted institutions? - they are mostly apathetic, greedy, pathetically under qualified, badly educated and mass produced dunderheads. And anyway most civil and construction engineers all want to live near the bright lights and want to work in the "get rich quick" software and IT industry and consumer businesses. There is an absolute dearth of first class talent in civil planning and allied services.

There is almost nothing left of the original infrastructure now and over the last 15-16 years we have seen the rampant rise of corrupt private "get rich quick" builders and real estate devils who have completely ruined our country with their evil political nexus.

I remember in Madras there was a huge low lying water body near Arumbakkam and that has gotten completely built over. Same with what was called Lake Area in Nungambakkam. The worst is that they've built the Chennai Metro right along a watercourse near Thiruvanmiyur - one day, when Nature Strikes, we are really going to have trouble. Pallikaranai Marshes used to be a bird watchers paradise. So was Velachery. Now they are massive garbage dumps and hotbeds of disease and illness.

In Bangalore, driving into this lovely city in the 1980's and 1990's, I remember lots and lots of lakes near the now horrid mess of KR Puram - all the way from Kolar and Hoskote etc. And on the Mysore Road the Vrishabharathi area and inside Bangalore in HSR Layout and Marathahalli and Bellandur and CV Raman Nagar near Bagmane Tech Park and so on.

Every single one of these original tanks and water bodies have been swallowed up by greedy filthy builders and politicians.

It is our own fault and we will certainly suffer for it. Kalyugam. and then Kalki Avataram. and then the end of the World by Water.

Frankly, I would be happy when this happens because we humans poison everything we touch. Instead of living along with nature and the contours of the land, we maim, kill, harm and create a mess wherever we go. And for that, we sincerely deserve nothing back from Nature except a Summary Lesson as outlined above.

Im not a doom sayer by nature, but the way things have been going these last 15-20 years, it is a fact that this will happen, sooner rather than later.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Even our traditional builders in olden times didn't make foolish greedy short sighted decisions like these new age planners and builders do.

I am yet to see any builder make a foolish decision. I think the foolish ones are the buyers, the builders are making enough money

[binand]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Right up to the 1980's the quality of planning and building and design was still good [...]

Not that I disagree with you outright, but you should also read:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...-getting-worse

which postulates that people tend to remember only good things from the past.

[NPV]

Experienced the weekend (sunday) evening craziness of Whitefield traffic yesterday for the first time and the root cause was Phoenix market city

In the evening around 5pm, I noticed heavy slow moving traffic on Old Madras Road near the Baiyappanahalli metro station, so decided to take a chance by taking the Kaggadaspura road via DRDO phase 2. All was well till I reached ORR at Mahadevapura. Took more than 20 minutes to turn right at the arch onto ITPL road. Extremely slow moving and further up I noticed that more than 3/4 of the road was blocked by vehicles trying to get in and out of Phoenix.

After this junction, it was free flowing traffic!

[balenoed_]

I stay near phoenix mall; The road is choked on weekdays due to the regular ITPL-KR Puram traffic, and on weekends with the phoenix crowd.

And it is not just the phoenix mall, you also have the huge black VR Mall right next to that.

I can only imagine what would be the state when the Metro work commences on this stretch.

I always wonder why we needed two huge malls next to each other. And the same never explained rant continues- "How come someone got permission to construct such mammoth structures without having good wide road access."

We will never know and there will never be an answer until the nature strikes, like it did to Chennai 2015, Srinagar 2014, Uttarakhand 2013, Mumbai 2005..

[srvm]

Originally Posted by NPV

......In the evening around 5pm, I noticed heavy slow moving traffic on Old Madras Road near the Baiyappanahalli metro station, so decided to take a chance by taking the Kaggadaspura road via DRDO phase 2. All was well till I reached ORR at Mahadevapura. Took more than 20 minutes to turn right at the arch onto ITPL road. Extremely slow moving and further up I noticed that more than 3/4 of the road was blocked by vehicles trying to get in and out of Phoenix......

Hello NPV. Slightly OT but can you clarify a couple of things.
1. Do they allow common man to use the new overbridge near DARE (on Kaggadasapura Main Road)? Or is it reserved only for DRDO employees?
2. The road from DRDO Phase-2 to ORR-Mahadevapura is pretty narrow at some points isn't it? How did you manoever here? Or is there another road from A.Narayanapura to ORR-Mahadevapura?

Would be hugely helpful. Thanks in advance. I find your posts very useful in general.

[binand]

Originally Posted by NPV

All was well till I reached ORR at Mahadevapura. Took more than 20 minutes to turn right at the arch onto ITPL road. [...] After this junction, it was free flowing traffic!

I have found it quicker to take the Goshala Road from ORR if I have to go beyond Phoenix. This is the road leading away from ORR at the Doddanekkundi junction (opposite Soulspace Arena) and joins ITPL Road near Decathlon.

[JD1]

Looks like the Ecospace footbridge is open now (not sure if there was an official inauguration ceremony). Saw 90% folks using it. The remaining 10% were still crossing the road :(
Ofcourse there was a Volvo breakdown after Ecospace flyover (towards Marathahalli) so traffic so solid RED between HSR BDA flyover and Kadubeesanahalli in the morning.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by JD1

Looks like the Ecospace footbridge is open now (not sure if there was an official inauguration ceremony). Saw 90% folks using it. The remaining 10% were still crossing the road :(
Ofcourse there was a Volvo breakdown after Ecospace flyover (towards Marathahalli) so traffic so solid RED between HSR BDA flyover and Kadubeesanahalli in the morning.

Saw an inauguration kind of set up with a small stage and lines of chairs in the Ecospace Visitors parking. Maybe there is something scheduled for later today.

The median has new barricades installed almost across the whole section between the 2 flyovers. There were gaps of course, since the over bridge was not open. Hopefully with the opening of the over bridge, they will close out all the gaps.

Interestingly, the staircase on the Ecospace side which lands next to the main carriageway is not complete as they cannot land it without moving the signboard. Bad designing in my opinion

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by srvm

1. Do they allow common man to use the new overbridge near DARE (on Kaggadasapura Main Road)? Or is it reserved only for DRDO employees?

It's not open for General Public usage although it will be mighty useful if open.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by srvm

1. Do they allow common man to use the new overbridge near DARE (on Kaggadasapura Main Road)? Or is it reserved only for DRDO employees?

No, this is out of bounds for non-DRDO folks. With the local politicos and the Railways not moving fast on the over bridge near the railway gate, the DRDO folks silently had one built for their residents to reach Phase 2 of their colony, smart move I would say!

2. The road from DRDO Phase-2 to ORR-Mahadevapura is pretty narrow at some points isn't it? How did you manoever here? Or is there another road from A.Narayanapura to ORR-Mahadevapura?

A bit narrow but manageable, but now after some recent pipe laying work, almost a third of the width is muddy. To get to ORR there are 2-3 different cross roads that one can take but all of them are quite narrow and can get clogged with traffic easily. As I mentioned earlier, being a Sunday evening I just took a chance. This route is not my preferred one for regular office commutes.
As they say these days, Everyone in Bangalore knows every so called short-cut so there is so no saying where you will get stuck!

Originally Posted by binand

I have found it quicker to take the Goshala Road from ORR if I have to go beyond Phoenix. This is the road leading away from ORR at the Doddanekkundi junction (opposite Soulspace Arena) and joins ITPL Road near Decathlon.

But isn't this road also quite narrow and it has few cross roads leading to Graphite road and Mahadevapura side as well ?

Somehow, I've never tried this but will do sometime soon, possibly a weekend recce/pilot drive sometime.


-----
*In other news, I heard from a friend yesterday that the Railways has begun constructing an underpass at the Horamvu Railway gate, so to get to Horamavu from the ORR side one now needs to go via Ramamurtny Nagar/TC Palya Road or Babusa Palya.

[haria]

night 1:30am, one would assume that there will not be much traffic - but tin factory flyover, it seems, never sleeps! Was stuck up for more than 30 minutes here in the early hours of saturday!

the culprits were haphazardly going huge trucks

[airbus]

Traffic Alert : Heavy dumper truck broken-down on the service road near New Horizon College/Embassy TechVillage, blocking the service road towards Bellandur

[babu.sundaram]

Today morning commute from Kasthuri Nagar to EMC/Samsung.
- Kasthuri Nagar/Railwayparallel Rd/OMR connect area completely clogged.
- Under Pass area near Purva Midtown - clogged!

But the Tin Factory flyover was free! Funny Bangalore!

[Vysakh]

Originally Posted by babu.sundaram

Today morning commute from Kasthuri Nagar to EMC/Samsung.
- Kasthuri Nagar/Railwayparallel Rd/OMR connect area completely clogged.
- Under Pass area near Purva Midtown - clogged!

But the Tin Factory flyover was free! Funny Bangalore!

When was the flyover free? All three roads were clogged at 8:30ish