Bangalore Sweatbox

According to this blog post, Bangalore hotels are charging more for non-Indians:

I am expecting a guest tomorrow night, and I called a local hotel for a room. The lady said good luck; we have a room open tomorrow night. Great, I said and then she asked what's the nationality of your guest. I wondered how that mattered. Then I learnt that this hotel's rates are Rs 7300 a night for Indian nationals. And US $ 245 (about Rs 11000) a night for non-Indians!

What the hell? Do foreign tourists consume more towels, bath soaps and tissue rolls or what? Or does the hotel just switch off air conditioning and hot water for their Indian guests? I tried arguing, but no use. I was told they have a "policy" like that!

 

This story illustrates the utter incompetence of whoever is doing urban planning and traffic management in Bangalore. Authorities opened -- two years late -- a "flyover" which would supposedly alleviate congestion at a traditional sore spot. Instead, it made things worse.

Wow -- who expected that??

Newly-opened flyover comes a cropper

Deccan Herald

It appears as though the solution itself ended up becoming the problem. A day after Bangaloreans were 'gifted' the Koramangala-Indiranagar link flyover on Airport Road, road users on Thursday had to put up with an even bigger traffic jam.

The areas around the newly-inaugurated flyover, including residential ones, were choked with traffic during peak hours, pushing people to take deviations or long detours to reach their destination. While on the one end, traffic from Koramangala piled up on the flyover itself, there was heavy congestion till the Indiranagar 12th Main junction located over 500 metres away from the flyover.

 
The reasons

First, the flyover road narrows down to half of its width at a junction on 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, few metres away from the flyover. Traffic being allowed to move on all roads and the absence of traffic signals, only exacerbates the pell-mell.

Secondly, the right turns were closed on 100 Feet Road, making the traffic coming from Koramangala towards the airport, travel extra distances to take a U-turn. Many were forced to venture into residential lanes, triggering jams even there. Chandru, an auto driver, said several roads inside the residential layouts were dead-ends or were 'no entry', making it all the more difficult for vehicles to move about. "This is worse than what I have ever seen," he said.

Deeptha, another road-user, felt the main flyover had failed to deliver what it had promised a few years ago. Deeptha said it took her 40 minutes, instead of the usual 10, to reach Domlur, from Defence Colony, Indiranagar, due to the choc-a-bloc traffic on 100 feet Road. "As the right turns on 100 Feet Road were closed, we were forced to go to Koramangala to reach Domlur. What a mess!," she said.

However, all was calm at the Koramangala end. Sunil, a petty shop owner said there was no traffic congestion and movement of vehicles was smooth throughout the day.

 
Police reaction

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East) M A Saleem said the traffic department will study the traffic movement near the flyover for the next two to three days, before planning the future course of action. "We may have to introduce new medians and U-turns to streamline traffic flow. This will be done in the next one or two weeks," he added.

posted by The Bangalorean @ 7/14/2006

 

When it came time to inauguate a new roadway, workers dug up part of the just-completed road for a "pandal," which I'm guessing is a sort of VIP platform (see last paragraph).

K'mangala-Indiranagar stretch opens today
Deccan Herald


What was scheduled to happen in 2004, will finally happen today. Road users will finally let out a collective sigh of relief when the long-pending Koramangala-Indiranagar stretch will be inaugurated on Wednesday.

However, the Bangalore Development Authority's Airport Road flyover project, that began in February 2003, is far from over. Only the main flyover, at the intersection of Airport Road and Inner Ring Road junction will be inaugurated. The four loops around the flyover still remain incomplete.

BDA plans to inaugurate one loop a month, which will perhaps drag the final completion to September.

The flyover will be inaugurated by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday morning at 9.30 am. Those heading to work via Airport Road may be in for slow moving traffic, as the event timing would coincide with peak hour traffic. Vehicular movement will be allowed on the two-way flyover from 11 am onwards.

Will the newly constructed flyover bear signs of 'destruction' on the inaugural day? Some motorists complained on Tuesday that the flyover was dug up on the middle of the newly-laid road to build the pandal for the event. According to Salil Shankar, who works in Indiranagar, "the road was spoilt even before it was inaugurated". Fuming against the organisers, the BDA, Shankar said, "Who is going to finally pay for the repairs? The taxpayer, of course. Is this the level of responsibility the builders have towards their own project?".