Category Archives: Bangalore

Models of parking provision in urban India

Posted on June 2, 2011 by

Mumbai’s parking policy gives builders FSI incentives to build public parking (source: indianurbaninfrastructure.com) It is incontestable that there is a shortage of parking in Indian cities. One only needs to look at the number of vehicles parked on the streets … Continue reading →

Posted in Aizawl, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Parking | 2 Comments

Parks vs. Parking: What do Indian cities need?

Posted on September 26, 2010 by

Chennai had prepared a plan some years ago for a multi-storey parking deck  in T. Nagar where the Panagal Park now stands. T Nagar, once a quiet residential neighbourhood, is now the shopping centre for all of Chennai and has … Continue reading →

Posted in Aizawl, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Park-n-ride, Parking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Vendors are the security, can’t you see?

Posted on August 30, 2010 by

Street vendors and homeless persons should be welcome on streets – between the two groups, they occupy the streets at all times of the day and night, providing stray walkers at night the security of not having to worry about being the only person on the street. And yet, we find that governments respond to their presence in exactly the opposite manner – Mumbai wants to get security to keep people from “encroaching” the elevated walkways when they could have gotten these “encroachers” to themselves serve as security – at so much less expense and freeing up so much time of the already overworked Mumbai Police. Continue reading →

Posted in Bangalore, homeless persons, Mumbai, Needs of the poor, Pedestrian Needs, security, Skywalk, Street Vendors | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Air-conditioning in transit: A Third-World perspective

Posted on July 27, 2010 by

If air-conditioning is to be seen as only a culturally-induced necessity, then enforcing it on third-world countries seems to suggest a degree of cultural imperialism that should not go unchallenged. Indians live in a social environment that is vastly different from that of the West. Most commuters do not have air-conditioning either at home or at work – for many slum-dwellers, even an electricity connection is a luxury. They do try to alter their environments to help cope with the heat – common methods are to have high ceilings for better ventilation or to sprinklewater on the roof. But their methods remain ‘passive’, and still require a degree of adaptation by the human body. Continue reading →

Posted in Air-conditioning, Bangalore, Mumbai, Needs of the poor, Planning in Context, urban heat islands | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Road widening and the structure of local governance

Posted on July 25, 2010 by

The constitution envisions a highly decentralized and democratic form of local governance, whereas current practice is quite autocratic and centralized. Bharatlal Meena’s attempts to thwart democracy are mere symptoms of a deeper malaise in the entire system of governance. Continue reading →

Posted in Bangalore, Governance, Local Government, Metropolitan Government, Road Widening, Transportation Planning | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment