With over a three million titles on display, 340 stalls from leading publishers and distributors, this 10 day long Bangalore Book Festival (BBF) is open to public from 9th Nov till 15th Nov ( i.e. today) is claimed to be indias largest book festival….

Open to public from 11am till 8pm.
More photos here..

Bangalore Photography Club’s annual photography exhibition will be held at Chitrakala Parishat, Kumar Krupa Road, Bangalore – on August 28, 29, 30 from 11 AM to 8 PM.

“The project, consisting of seven underground stations, will be commissioned by September 2012. On completion, train service will be provided at an interval of four minutes initially, and it will be reduced to three minutes in due course,” BMRCL has committed to get the entire network ready by that month in an affidavit filed in the Karnataka High Court. Hope this deadline does not remain on the affidavit alone…

Karnataka Wine Board had a concerted effort to promote wine tourism, a very first a three day wine festival which was organized in Lalbagh this weekend, people took this opportunity to test and buy different types of wines from leading wine manufacturers like Grover, Kinvah and Naka…

The State wine policy allows individuals, groups, companies and to organize wine festivals. However, there’s a strict no-no to fortified wine (alcohol-added wine) during these festivals. Karnataka has 600 acres under grape cultivation, with Nandi Valley in Chikkaballapur and Krishna Valley in Bijapur with the highest cultivation.

Lalbagh is housing mango and jackfruit festival till 15th June 09, number of varieties of mangos and even jackfruits( I never knew there exist varieties in jackfruits until I visited) the famous glass house..

There are quite a few stalls sampling the mangos and selling them at an affordable price…I was glad to see ( and taste few of ) the varieties like Langra , Nekkare, Arka Puneeth, Arka Arun, Totapuri, Amrapali, Sendhuri, Dashehari , Kesar, Rasapuri to name the few along with popular Badami & Alphonso…

The city is a proud owner of many lakes and reserviors that keeps the garden city cherish its green cover. In recent few years these water bodies are seen shrinking and drying up as the urban population and demands thereof keep increasing….

The few lake beds are now visible and many borewells are getting driedup as ground water keeps depleting… The garden city indeed should get its act together to restore these water bodies and focus on innovative ways and means to fight the scarecity of water….There are few events like Madiwala Proposal happending today helping raise awareness…

More than light, music and action of over 300 folk artists from 28 districts, classical elements and one concept – ‘the fight against casteism ’, that was the show at Lalbagh last evening taking the audience through a journey of human evolution with a depiction of the cause of the casteism. To help large Audience to enjoy the show it was seated on the huge rock face in Lalbagh ….

The show organized by the department of Information is directed by Vishwakumar and scripted by K Ramaiahm- Lakshmipati Kola and K Y Narayanawamy and music was by Hamsalekha….

The place to reach for all these activities is: St. Charles High School, St. Thomas Town, Near Frazer Town, Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Please come, along with your friends, family and colleagues, and pass on the message to all.
This google map link will provide you directions. Contact Janet at 9845449703, if you need any more information.

The report highlights issues and concerns in and around HAL airport at Bangalore and Begumpet in Hyderabad, here are some important observations / highlights of this report…

• Charging of ADF or UDF for financing of the airport is not advisable in the context of policy objective of making the air travel more affordable. The committee has recommended that the UDF imposed on passengers may be withdrawn immediately and no more UDF may be imposed on passengers in any airport.
• Closures of existing airports had caused a revenue loss of Rs 610 crore in 2007-08 for the Airports Authority of India and hundreds of crore spent on developing this airports were lying unutilised because of closure of this infrastructure although these were used for VIP flights, general aviation and helicopter taxi services.
• These airports may be used for short haul flights as is the practice existing in major cities of the world which had more than one airport.
• Committee was informed that the Notice Inviting Tender did not have any mention about the closure of HAL airport at Bangalore but was brought in at the later stage of concessionary agreement. As regarding the violation of the norm that no new airport should come up within 150 km of existing airport and the permitting the Greenfield airports in the two southern cities seemed to violate the policy of the Government.
• Both Greenfield airports were far away from the cities compelled the passengers to use other means of transport such as road and trains for short distance destinations. UDF charges have made the travel from these airports costlier both in terms of time and money.
• Committee had found that the equity contributions of these two Greenfield airports were Rs 240 crore in Bangalore and Rs 330 crore in Hyderabad and the land was given at a concessionary rate. Rest of the finance had come from Government agencies by way of debt from financial institutions. If such resources were to be given to AAI itself, they could have easily developed the infrastructure
• The panel had observed that the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports were making the passengers pay ”exorbitant prices’ for the food items in the airports, while those waiting outside had not access to affordable canteen facilities, toilets and bathrooms. excessive commercialisation had taken a toll of the passenger amenities

Read the full coverage here and here