The ABIDe (Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure & Development) Task Force, with the Chief Minister as Chairman, Mr. Ananth Kumar (MP-Bangalore South) as Vice Chairman and Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekar (MP – Rajya Sabha) as Convener, has been constituted to revive and rebuild Bengaluru through a combination of Comprehensive planning, improved municipal services and new investments into infrastructure. ABIDe also owns the task of providing a blue-print for sustainable and orderly development of Bangalore under Bengaluru Vision 2020.

ABIDe has formulated several draft reports and action plans and blueprints in the areas of Governance, Road Traffic Management & Transportation, Urban Poor, and Public Security. These reports are available here. Citizen inputs to help develop these further is welcome.
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The magic of winter is fading, the summer spins have started showing up… The rain trees have lost their canopies to the winter fall and city gets deprived of their caring shadows for some time…

Jayanagar, near the Ashoka Pillar, has an avenue (an avenue, by definition, is a tree-lined street), filled with, among other trees, Sausage Trees .

This is the time when the tree bears both flowers and fruits, and incredibly striking they are, too.

Here’s a flower and a bud:

Here are some flowers, hanging down on their stalks:

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Hasiru Usiru, a network of community organisations, residents associations, project affected communities, voluntary organisations and individuals concerned about protecting equitable access to public spaces such as roads and parks in Bengaluru, invite you to participate in a Walk to Reclaim Bengaluru on November 9th 2008, at 11 am at Lalbagh West Gate. The key purpose is to highlight the extensive damage that road-widening and Metro projects are causing to the city, destroying in the process lives, livelihoods and thousands of trees. This walk is also to demand an inclusive planning process in shaping our city and ensuring that short-sighted, elite induced, infrastructure development, does not cause irreversible damage to the city and ruin the lives of thousands.

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City is busy celebrating Ganesha festival, even the busy streets like this SP road which is an electronics & engineering market does celebrate festivities by way of offering free lunches to the community.
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On August 23rd, people in 192 cities around the world will go on a “photo walk” apparently to celebrate the launch of some book. Yes…it hardly sounds like a worthwhile reason to expend energy on a Saturday morning, but look at it this way… it’s just cool that the whole world will come together under a few common flickr tags that day. So if you’d like to know more about this event and register for it, please visit:

http://www.photoshopuser.com/photowalk/city/bangalore.html

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– Celebrations of the 6th International Jawa Yezdi Day on 13th July at Cubbon Park, Bangalore at 7am

The International Jawa CZ Yezdi Day is an annual celebration of those 250 cc Jawa & Yezdi bikes that were sold in India from 1960 to 1997. They are popular for their reliability and low maintenance costs. They were manufactured at the Ideal Jawa factory in Mysore.

To commemorate the 6th International Jawa-Yezdi Day, the Jawa – Yezdi Club of Bangalore is organizing a rally. The following is the route: Cubbon Park – MG Rd – Brigade Rd – Richmond Circle – Lalbagh – Corporation Circle – Mysore Rd – Chennapattana Coffee Day and back

Get-together at 7.00am
Flag Off at 8.00am (Sharp)

For more info, pls contact: Lokesh-9880033994; Sam-99451 44774; Brian-9886101005

Here’s a message from a friend, about a meeting I consider it important to attend:

There will be a meeting at Environment Support Group (ESG) at 3.30 pm tomorrow (Sat. 5th), to discuss and strategise on two very important issues concerning the city.

1)The BBMP has touted a road-widening program on 91 roads ( to be extended to 123) of Bangalore. Since the announcement of the scheme, ESG and Hasiru Usiru have been opposing the project, as it is irrational and against all basic principles of design and planning.

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Here’s Bannerghatta Road, at the Jayadeva flyover; four years ago, all the trees that had been planted on this road were cut down and the road widened, and the flyover built.

Can you see even a blade of grass in the picture?

What has the effect of the tree-felling, road-widening, and flyover-building been on traffic?

The traffic is as choked as ever, and all that has happened is that we have lost a lot of greenery and tree cover; the area has become much more polluted and noisy.

Can we stop further unnecessary felling of trees and widening of roads, which result in the same traffic congestion + lack of trees, just a few years down the line, and think of more long-term and people-friendly solutions to our traffic problems?

A wholesaler of local fries checkingout his cart customer early morning on his two wheeler, these cheap hot chips are munched along sipping the tea by local crowds …