The new CM - HD Kumaraswamy is making all the right noises in the media for now - and Bangalore's dying to latch on to even raw hope (laced, I must add, with generous doses of cynicism).
The thing is, I do not believe the babudom which thwarted Krishna, and revelled under Dharam and Siddu, is likely to let things happen. And not just the Bangalore babudom.
case in point:
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=87763L&T have proven themselves earlier. Why not give them a lion's share of the work and maybe even overall supervisory control. I think they were key to the Konkan railways too.
Even from a lay person's point of view, there's too much lack of vision/capability/knowledge. Neither short term execution skills, nor long term planning is discernible.
Examples:
Majestic/Railway Station/New Offices on MGRoad:
Bangalore seems to be restricted to a 5 km sq in the 'heart' of the city - and I've been hearing the 'growing too fast' for 10 years now!
Why do long distances buses - 100s and 100s of them, drive right through the city everyday ? Surely these can start at the city periphery and reduce hazaar traffic in town ?
Why is the railway station again the only one - Cantonment is still a joke and there's nothing around the 'suburbs'. Tried boarding/alighting at KR Puram ?
A lot of the city is linked by rails - add a little more and u have a railway system ready ? Why dig the whole place up for the metro or waste colossal amounts on monorails etc ?
Why is new construction still permitted in the CBD ? Does it make sense to have more and more offices there ? On a related note, why have traffic cut through Brigade road, Comm street ? They're readymade "malls" if one just paves them, covers them with FRP sheets, and throws in a couple of pavement restaurants, live bands (Chandigarh sector 17, not some distant populationless land being my inspiration).
Why have traffic in the CBD at all ? Have huge lots around it, and FREE/CHEAP electric buses running along circular routes.
The malls: U go and spend hours there. They create tons of traffic, esp once the multiplexes start attracting crowds. Why are these in the heart of the city ?
Hospitals : The already choked, dusty Bannerghata road has just been blessed with 2 humongous ones - Wockhardt and Imperial (bought by Apollo).
a) theres always the traffic issue
b) is there suffficient electrcity supplied from multiple phases ?
c) what about sewage disposal - surely hospitals that big need a special focus on that, for both solid as well as potentially toxic liquid waste ?
The ORR offices:a) Why isn't the service road done yet ?
b) Why are trucks allowed, sorry, encouraged to park in one lane and effectively block another trying to do this ?
c) Why do most establishments *face* the main road and not an internal access road ?
Generally:Can not the Hosur and a few other roads be made into limited access high speed arteries with clean well defined points to enter/exit them at 2/3 places in the city max, NO bus stops, NO shops facing them (so nobody's encouraged to just pick up
in a min - "doesn't matter"). Have the hospitals in large spaces along these arteries around the periphery of the city - so ppl can get there in 25-20 mins max - and then have the malls well outside. U go there to spend a few hrs anyhow - whats a 15 min drive ? In fact it might be quicker if its a free flowing road!
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