One of the nerve centres that links our city to the rest of the country is the central bus stand, which is called Majestic, after a movie theatre of that name..indeed, that whole area of Bangalore is called Majestic!

So here’s a visit to the Majestic Bus Stand. As you go in, the sign, illuminated at night, greets you:

And you also see the sign of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, with its logo of the double-headed eagle, which has come down to us from the erstwhile Wodeyar dynasty:

Here are some more images from this bustling terminal….
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Bangalore Metro website reminds me of Navjot Sidhu’s miniskirts quote – they hide more than they reveal!

Flashy site. Colorful. Logo and all. On each visit, I try my best to find authentic information on phase 2 (Kanakapura, Peenya extensions?) and phase 3 (Electronics City, Whitefiled?), but I can’t. A possible logic BMRC may have is – publishing routes which aren’t final will lead to speculative real estate activity. But then, keeping the information limited to a few babus and journalists is more dangerous. Who knows, some real estate folks may already be selling pigeon holes based on the ‘best-known’ next phase routes!

Next up, whatever happened to dear Mono? A route map is available, but no update on whats happening to the project. Does anyone know if BMRC itself will be executing it?

Talking about stations, why do I see newspapers carrying more details than the website itself? Are they really planning a 1000 car parking garage at Byappanhalli? Will RV Road Terminal have any serious parking space? How do I know who is telling the truth when there is no authentic source of information?

Last, how about some regular project updates? Don’t need pictures, papers do a good job of that. A schedule, some deadlines, status etc should help. Why be scared when you seem to be doing a good job!?

Lots of activity happening on the Namma Metro work on MG Road. Here are some glimpses:

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It was MG Road area that saw all the action till now. BMRCL has now started some work on RV road between teacher’s college junction and Rajalaxmi Kalyana Mantapa. They have just about begun some digging work, and have put up some small barricades here and there near the medians through this stretch. From what I saw, it looks like they will be doing all the digging and construction work near the median. That means Laxman Rau Park – the green stretch on either side of the road between South End Circle and Rajalaxmi Kalyana Mantapa – might escape the axe. This is one of the most beautiful roads you can see in Bangalore and it would be nice to see it remain that way.

I did not manage to get any photos, but will carry the camera next time I go that way. And don’t be surprised if Ravi manages to beat me in getting the pics!

BMRC had awarded Reach 1 of Namma Metro i.e the elevated tracks from Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium to Byappanahalli to the Hyderabad-based company – Navayuga Engineering Company (NEC). Though construction was scheduled to begin from Feb 20th, there appear to be some unexpected & unforeseen delays. Overall, NEC has 27 months — till April 19, 2009 — to complete the work. Fingers are crossed, surely.

The elevated structure would have around 2000 pre-cast segments (concrete blocks) to be constructed in a casting yard on an open site (which the Defence has given to BMRCL on a temporary basis) on Old Madras Road near Indiranagar BDA complex.

Here are some pics of the work in progress regarding the above:
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Recently (yeah…we believe you! Ed! ) I’d taken some pics of the work that has commenced on M G Road for Namma Metro. Here they are:

The commencement of the boulevard on M.G Road, from St. Marks Road side:

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One of these days when a big noisy bunch of us were roaming around MG Road, brooding about the diminishing green patch, we barged into India Coffee House for breakfast. Restless for photographs that we were, we walked all around the tiny place that ICH is, disturbed everyone and were eventually herded to the first floor that was completely empty in the morning.

The staff there were friendly and warm to the enthusiastic photographers disturbing their daily activities – like bumping into them and stopping them for a photograph, subtly getting the staff to pose and even barging into their kitchen. It is this barging into the kitchen that threw me into surprise. They used charcoal ovens for all their cooking. No LPG or any other means! I wondered why, and noticed that little has changed in ICH since the day the place was opened.
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The city’s landscape will change over the next few years. And with the Metro coming up, there’s already a lot of chopping, cutting and re-alignment to make way for the train line.

I was on MG Road the other day, and noticed with some sadness, the barricades along the promenade. I wonder how that part will look in a few years to come. People rushing around to catch the train. But we can still hold on to the memories of the lovely green promenade it once was. I did read that it would be rebuilt, but those lovely trees – it’s going to be really a sad sight to see them all come down. They might be able to rebuild the promenade, but nothing will replace the trees.

A sight to remember. MG Road before the Metro. The overhanging branches of the beautiful tree, shading the promenade like an umbrella

Well, I’m not going to talk any further on tree felling, for sure.

Anyway, I passed by MG Road yesterday and realised, to my sheer horror, that I’d not carried along my trust digicam. Hence am not able to show you, dear readers, the action on MG Road. Will compensate one of these days. Meanwhile, here are some related pics of whats happening on the Metro front elsewhere.
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Well, the title sounds and appears very morbid, doesn’t it? But then, if you are sensitive to Bangalore’s ecology, perhaps thats what you’d feel. Read on.

For years, Bangaloreans have never failed to stand up collectively for the one thing that makes our city unique – its trees and green cover. But now, many are forced to stand and watch as mute witnesses to their destruction as they are cut mercilessly to make way for the alternative public transport system.

An anguished letter from a reader (I’m unable to reproduce the letter here as the scanned pic file size is way too large) was printed in the TOI a few days back by a reader, Ms. Ruby Kamdin. In it, she states / asks:
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