Bangalore city Old Versus new - PHOTO ESSAY.

[Ray]

Bangalore city Old Versus new - PHOTO ESSAY.

 

[TrueSpirit]

10-12 years back, I found Bangalore to be the best city in India with no competition in sight.

I am not so sure anymore.

Weather is last remaining respite.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Was in Bangalore recently, Wonderful city..

 

[Decklander]

As part of our flying syllabus in Bidar, we had to do a x-country flight with landing at out station airfield. We did this x-country to bangalore. That was in 1988 and we were briefed to look out for the lake to the south of the bangalore airport as we cud miss the town completely. That small was the city of bangalore than.

 

[Payeng]

Bangalore is a nice place but a planned city

 

[Bangalorean]

The only way to save Bangalore is to expedite the metro. Finish a complete metro network spanning all parts of the city in the next 5 years. The way the buggers are progressing, it does not seem possible even in the next 25 years.

After the metro is done, impose massive congestion charges on cars in all arterial roads in the city in the daytime. Parking in certain localities like the CBD should be made severely expensive. Driving down roads like Hosur road, Bannerghatta road, Dr. Rajkumar road, etc. needs to tolled. Of course, all this needs to be done only after the metro is complete in all aspects and covers the entire city.

This is the only way to prevent the city from being ruined.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Traffic is a huge issue, 15kms distance in Bangalore is said to be near not far ...

 

[TrueSpirit]

I think things all good things went out of window only after Metro was started. In 2000-2004, there was no sign of Metro & the city literally rocked like nowhere else in India.

But, now the neta-babu-seth-contractor nexus in their relentless pursuit of greed has ruined it for good. It is extremely disheartening to see the MG Road & Infantry Road in the situation it finds itself in. Thankfully, the Brigade Rd. is still pretty much the same what it was like back then.

The less said about traffic situation, the better. I found it becoming like NCR (which I believe is the worse in India despite having a huuuge Metro network).

Surprisingly, despite 85% of the lakes being converted in IT parks, housing societies, SEZ's & most trees being cut down for facilitating Metro construction, weather still remains amazing (still, the best in India if one discounts the hills)

Overall, Chandigarh is the one city that still has lots of hope. Hasn't changed much in last 15 years which is seriously awesome. Especially, the crowd rocks

 

[Bangalorean]

I think things all good things went out of window only after Metro was started. In 2000-2004, there was no sign of Metro & the city literally rocked like nowhere else in India.

But, now the neta-babu-seth-contractor nexus in their relentless pursuit of greed has ruined it for good. It is extremely disheartening to see the MG Road & Infantry Road in the situation it finds itself in. Thankfully, the Brigade Rd. is still pretty much the same what it was like back then.

The fact that the city deteriorated at the same time as the metro began being built has nothing to do with the metro itself. With the kind of increase in population and traffic that Bangalore has seen from that time till now, it should be considered a blessing that the city still survives.

Traffic problems are caused by private cars. If private cars continue to proliferate at the same rate, the city will die. Unless the city gets a metro on the lines of London or Singapore, the city is doomed.

 

[TrueSpirit]

The fact that the city deteriorated at the same time as the metro began being built has nothing to do with the metro itself. With the kind of increase in population and traffic that Bangalore has seen from that time till now, it should be considered a blessing that the city still survives.

Traffic problems are caused by private cars. If private cars continue to proliferate at the same rate, the city will die. Unless the city gets a metro on the lines of London or Singapore, the city is doomed.

Yes, private cars are the root cause. But, I am not sure if Metro alone would really alleviate that, especially to the extent that is expected.

I did not see Metro alleviating that issue in NCR which has more numbers of cars than remaining 3 metropolitan cities combined & continues to outpace all cities when it comes to buying cars.

People would buy cars, no matter what. Bigger & bigger, that is.

Normally, our middle-class starts with Maruti/Hyundai models, moves on to Honda quickly & get a SUV in no time (the new models are so easy to handle these days, after all).

But still, they have money to spare which goes into Reva, thankfully (especially if it is Bangalore). In Delhi, it would be a BMW/Merc or an imported one (even if second-hand).

One could argue that had it not been for Metro, the traffic bottlenecks could have been worse in NCR.

But, one never knows, its all speculation.

Our policy-makers are not highly adept or particularly known for their civic-planning skills. I am not sure how much of detailed planning & foresight would have gone into the study to determine the traffic growth models. I mean, all of it is speculation at best (which could have been influenced/manipulated by vested interests) unless stochastic models were really factored into (& a few million iterations of simulations were run on Hi-Perf Clusters), when planning for Metro (inception stage).

All I see is that the roads in NCR that used to known for their width have become narrow streets/lanes, thanks to the Metro.

Only where all is underground, that real benefits could be realized.

I seriously doubt if BGL really needed this Metro. Metro took up lion's share of road width of major arterial routes cutting across the city, which worsened the congestion. Had it not been for Metro, I believe one would have seen lot more green-open spaces & much wider roads + parking spaces.

Anyway, I am not sure who is really benefiting out of BGL Metro service (apart from the ubiquitous nexus I stated). I believe mostly college kids are using it, as of now.

Maybe, in future its real utility could be determined when Metro ventures out of the city to the new BGL suburbs, mushrooming all over.

 

[Ray]

I landed in Bangalore in 1975,

I thought I was in a foreign land as we drove down from the railway station to Agram Lines through MG Road and Trinity Church road.

Brigade Road and Commercial Street was way out.

Went again in 2001 to play a golf tournament at the Bangalore Golf Club. The ambience of the Golf Club was great. Could not locate Peacock, Blue Fox and many other landmarks of before. What a disappointment.

 

[Vishwarupa]

10-12 years back, I found Bangalore to be the best city in India with no competition in sight.

I am not so sure anymore.

Weather is last remaining respite.

Weather is not good in summer now a days. Earlier summer as soo pleasant now its horrible then Chennai or Hyderabad. Its similar to Delhi if feel(Little less).

Bangalore is marred with traffic problem(travelling is pain), Path holes & bumpy roads, Water issues, high cost of living & high real estate costs. .

Goodies: weather is pleasant( apart from summer), clubs, Malls, Discotheques, Good Food, cosmopolitan life, good healthcare, Education, traditional, Local people are very supportive to expats, some areas are very well planned with lots of gardens & park, IT Hub.

 

[TrueSpirit]

Weather is not good in summer now a days. Earlier summer as soo pleasant now its horrible then Chennai or Hyderabad. Its similar to Delhi if feel(Little less).

Yes, I experienced that. But, I think Chennai & Hyd. are still far worse to compare in this respect.

Bangalore is marred with traffic problem(travelling is pain), Path holes & bumpy roads, Water issues, high cost of living & high real estate costs.

.

In other words, it has deteriorated into a state which remaining cities of India find themselves in.

clubs, Malls, Discotheques, Good Food, cosmopolitan life, good healthcare, Education,

Most metros offer the same, maybe better & on a bigger scale. Especially, NCR (maybe Mumbai, too)

Local people are very supportive to expats

,

That is somewhat rare in India. Quite unlike NCR.

some areas are very well planned with lots of gardens & park, IT Hub.

Yeah, that's why the the crowd is still heading towards it.

 

[Ray]

Bangalore and Pune were non Fan stations i.e. the govt accommodations did not have ceiling fans.

Now, fans are there but you still have to fan yourself with a palm frond fan to blow away the sweat.

 

[Vishwarupa]

Yes, I experienced that. But, I think Chennai & Hyd. are still far worse to compare in this respect.

I felt Bangalore Summer longer & it is like sitting next to fire( Dry Heat)

In other words, it has deteriorated into a state which remaining cities of India find themselves in.

I agree

Most metros offer the same, maybe better & on a bigger scale. Especially, NCR (maybe Mumbai, too)

In NCR & Mumbai you do not find Hotels in every road (or Galli) Nor you will find these many hospitals as in Bangalore. Mumbai has sea to offer as an alternate to Malls.

That is somewhat rare in India. Quite unlike NCR.

This is the USP of Bangalore unlike in Chennai or NCR people are very friendly. Government is also very friendly towards Expats.

Yeah, that's why the the crowd is still heading towards it.

Agreed. Apart from IT nothing much is happening in Bangalore

 

[nrupatunga]

More than anything else, the biggest problem bengaluru will face is water problem.Growth is saturated, sadly the city has maybe maxx of 10-15 years more. This year itself during summer, large parts of city went dry for days together.. There's no local supply of water thanks to land mafia. Every lake is thing of past (dried and now into flats/colonies) or huge sewage dump-yard. Bellandur lake the biggest lake is now largest sewage dump-yard in bengaluru. One jusr can not stand near the lake for 5 mins because of pungent smell. Ground water is over exploited (actually this is an under statement). This has led to a new mafia growing i.e. tanker mafia.These peopel chare huge amount to supply water. Overall a very sad picture.

Maybe the city was not expected to grow this much at all. Wrt IT, slowly its loosing charm. No big company is expanding in a large way here.As land is premium over here and farther they move outside the city, more the IT coolies hate it. Travelling 2 hrs one way to office is not helping the city. This has lead to people looking for places nearby their offices. Which means many people just don't know places outside of their localities. I have met people who are there in bengaluru for around 10 years, but have never even heard of places like vijaynagar, basaveshwaranagar, malleshwara, basavangudi etc

 

[Decklander]

I was recently allotted a 4BHK flat in bangalore from AFNHB situated next to HMT in north Bangalore called Jalvayu Heights. That place has the old world charm and the roads are still the way they were during british time. Nice area with Kaveri water for the entire society. The biggest plus factor is that in next one year we will have the Metro starting right in front of this place. This place seems less congested compared to rest of Bangalore but with many new projects and new DRDO facilities coming up in North Bangalore, the days of peacefull living in that area are going to be over soon.

 

[Bangalorean]

I was recently allotted a 4BHK flat in bangalore from AFNHB situated next to HMT in north Bangalore called Jalvayu Heights. That place has the old world charm and the roads are still the way they were during british time. Nice area with Kaveri water for the entire society. The biggest plus factor is that in next one year we will have the Metro starting right in front of this place. This place seems less congested compared to rest of Bangalore but with many new projects and new DRDO facilities coming up in North Bangalore, the days of peacefull living in that area are going to be over soon.

Are you allowed to re-sell the flat? If yes, you have a goldmine in your hands.

 

[nrupatunga]

@Decklander The area you say has lot of army/drdo related institutes. Hence lot of open areas still. Yes metro is nearby, but you have to wait for it. Might not a short wait. WRT kaveri water, bengaluru can't depend on it for long. Lot of stakeholders within the state and outside the state. Tumkur road traffic is legendary. It maybe better with expressway now but still....

 

[Decklander]

Are you allowed to re-sell the flat? If yes, you have a goldmine in your hands.

Bro I have flats in Mumbai and Pune also but I keep them locked. I stay in Delhi in my own house, I do not sell what I buy.