http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/29/stories/2006082914380100.htm

Projects worth Rs. 62,864 cr. cleared

Special Correspondent

They will provide employment to 6.31 lakh people in the State

# Major projects Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited's proposed Rs. 30,000-crore refinery at Suratkal
# Four SEZs for IT and ITES to be set up by Tata Consultancy Ltd.



The HDK Govt seems to be on a project clearance spree, with a vengeance. The rate at which projects are being announced, even if half of these come to fruition, it will be a good job done by this govt.

However, from experience we know there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.

This is anyway, better than the Deve Gowda/Dharam Singh regime, where the opposite was happening, by shooting down on-going projects and putting a spanner in the works of any proposed projects, in the name of pro-rural sentiments.

I wish the current govt all success in implementation of these projects. Apart from the above new announcement, we have the following on-going / announced projects:

1. Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli
2. Bangalore Metro
3. Bangalore Monorail feeder network
4. Elevated access controlled highway to Electronics city
5. Expansion of Hosur Road (NH4) to six lanes with service roads
6. B'lore - Mysore Highway & Peripheral Ring road - 4 level interchange at Kengeri township
7. Satellite towns ring road to create five major townships
8. Expansion of B'lore - Mysore highway to six lane
9. Expressway to connect Devanahalli airport from Ring road at Nagavara
10. Upgradation of 22 major roads in Bangalore
11. PPPs for water bodies management and development
12. Plus the BMIC project (which is totally private) progressing despite govt efforts to stall it
13. Completion of Indiranagar flyover by Dec 06
14. Jayadeva flyover has been completed (finally!!)
15. New flyovers at various other intersections - Magadi-Chord road, South end circle, RV road, and some more on Rajajinagar side I cannot recall.

Following have been on paper for a long time now:

16. The South Western Railway had also announced plans to build an elevated road connecting the City Station rear entrance from Rajajinagar side. No news on the developments on this.

17. BMTC had announced plans to build a mega centre at Subashnagar to replace the existing city bus stand with an integrated terminus connecting bus, railway and metro, along with shopping arcades, restaurants, theatres etc...

^^^ Yes thats true, HDK is a much better CM than Dharam singh or deva gowda and bangalore seems to have lots of hopes pinned on him.

6. B'lore - Mysore Highway & Peripheral Ring road - 4 level interchange at Kengeri township


Are they really getting a 4-level stack? What's the source?

i dunno about the levels, but i did see some models in some epapers.

it is an elongated interchange. - a huge curved L coming in from mysore side going to ORR towards jp nagar.


dunno if it is scalable though.

I didn't really know this was going on but I saw construction work and signs everywhere and pillars being layed.... This is NH7 from Bangalore-Hosur. I took these pics while going to Hosur. I had no idea of works on elevated expressway.
http://i8.tinypic.com/263fynq.jpg

That big white thing is what they use to lay pillars deep in the ground without digging.
http://i7.tinypic.com/263g0md.jpg

thanks man for the update

Are they really getting a 4-level stack? What's the source?

Here is the article.... four ramps is the exact wording used

http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/29/stories/2006082922790300.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/29/images/2006082922790301.jpg

BANGALORE: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday laid the foundation stone for the Rs. 23-crore four-ramp grade separator at the Bangalore-Mysore Road and Outer Ring Road (ORR) Junction near Kengeri.

The Chief Minister could not address the gathering as it started raining.

He left the venue immediately after the ceremony.

Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Minister for Health and Family Welfare R. Ashok and Minister for Science and Technology Ramachandra Gowda were present.

The work is being taken up by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL).

It is being implemented by Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd. The project has to be completed within 15 months.

A 375-metre Ramp 1 takes traffic from Bangalore on Bangalore Mysore Road towards the ring road with a "U" turn where vehicles can cross the highway on a grade separator to join the Outer Ring Road with a ramp.

Vehicles from the Outer Ring Road towards Mysore can take a right turn on a 570-metre Ramp 2 to join Bangalore Mysore Road after crossing the highway on a grade separator.

A 275-metre Ramp 3 will facilitate traffic from Mysore Road to join Outer Ring Road with a grade separator ramp after a left turn. Traffic from Outer Ring Road would take a left turn on a grade separator and join the Bangalore Mysore Road towards the city on a 130-metre Ramp 4.

The carriageway on the grade separators and ramps is nine metres wide.

I have just opened up my new showcase thread on Bangalore with an update on UBCITY!!! Check it out and be sure to also check out my Hyderabad thread if you have not seen it yet! (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=389994)

4 ramps don't necessarily mean 4 levels. The model looks more like 2-3 levels.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/09/02/stories/2006090202490400.htm

Huawei Technologies India has opened a new facility in Bangalore to develop optical network products and wireless LAN solutions. The new centre will work on Huawei's Optix series. These optical solutions are deployed in IPTV services, Triple Play (high speed Internet, television and voice) services, mobile services and leased line services.

The facility to accommodate 180 software engineers will also house a team working on Wireless LAN domain, related software development catering to the Wireless Switch and Wireless Access Points products.

Infosys mentor Murthy to help Bangalore retain top IT slot
Monday September 4 2006 00:00 IST IANS

BANGALORE: Burying the hatchet with the Karnataka government over the development of Bangalore, Infosys Technologies chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy has agreed to head a vision group to help the city retain its pre-eminent IT slot.

Murthy, who stepped down as chairman of the country's second largest IT bellwether in July, has accepted the offer of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to head the IT vision group and shape the state's IT vision. According to the chief minister's office, Murthy agreed to accept the offer in a letter to Kumaraswamy last week. "I am grateful to you for inviting me to chair the state IT vision group. It will be a privilege and pleasure to do so," Murthy stated in his acceptance letter.

It may be recalled Kumaraswamy had invited the IT czar to head the vision group during his address at the silver jubilee celebrations of Infosys in Mysore July 31. "The state government would like to benefit from Murthy's vision, his enormous experience and desire to work for Karnataka after his retirement," Kumaraswamy said on that occasion. Murthy had resigned from the post of non-executive chairman of the Bangalore International Airport Limited in November last following a spat with Kumaraswamy's father and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

He relented to head the IT vision group after he found the "young and dynamic" chief minister committed to the development of knowledge-based industries in the state and retaining Bangalore's edge in the IT sector.

"Murthy had consented to chair the vision group at a meeting with the chief secretary (B K Das) and IT department officials at a meeting Aug 25, where issues related to the growth of IT and knowledge-based industries were discussed," said IT secretary Anup Poojary.

In the run-up to the Bangalore IT event next month-end, the vision group will be meeting soon to chalk out a time-bound programme to promote knowledge-based industries and showcase the state's eco-system to prospective investors. "The government is keen to replicate the success of Bangalore in the knowledge sector in secondary cities across the state by creating an enabling environment, including infrastructure, connectivity and logistics," Poojary told IANS here on Sunday.

While the vision group on biotechnology (BT), headed by Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, will continue to function separately, the IT vision group will focus on implementing the state's millennium IT policy announced in 2000 under the then IT-savvy chief minister S M Krishna.

Accounting for 37 percent of the country's total IT exports of Rs.1, 008 billion ($22.4 billion) in the last fiscal (2005-06), Karnataka retained its top slot by exporting software services and hardware goods to the tune of Rs.401 billion ($8.9 billion).

As India's silicon hub, Bangalore alone contributed for Rs.366 billion ($8.14 billion), registering a year-on-year growth of 36 percent over the previous fiscal (2005). With the booming IT sector sustaining the growth rate in the current fiscal (2006-07), the state-owned software technology parks of India (STPI) has projected IT exports from Karnataka at Rs.490-500 billion ($10.9-11.1 billion) by March 31, 2007.

About 1,200 tech firms, including about 500 multinationals employ about 375,000 people, including 170,000 in the IT-enabled services such as call centres and business process outsourcing services (BPO).

In terms of investments, the state has attracted 201 IT firms during the last fiscal (FY 2006), including 124 foreign equity companies, with a combined investment of Rs 27.61 billion ($614 million). "At the rate of four new companies every week, the STPI units have been growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 13 percent. About 10 foreign equity firms were approved every month in the last fiscal," STPI director B V Naidu recalled.

In order to ensure Bangalore remains the preferred IT destination, the government is setting up 1,400-acre hardware technology park near the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli and has earmarked 500 acres each at Bidadi and Dobbaspet on the outskirts of the city for setting up new software companies.

As per the McKinsey-Nasscom report, Karnataka is projected to achieve $20 billion IT exports by 2010; with about 500,000 employed in the industry, including IT enabled services/BPO segments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
entire country should benefit from such a visionery's advice and guidance.

Bangalore on its way to become a full fledged aerospace hub.


http://www.business-standard.com/economy/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=103766&subLeft=1&leftnm=3

Government to allot land to EADS near BIAL

BS Reporters / Chennai/ Bangalore September 06, 2006

Giving in to the mounting pressure from the airline majors and in a bid to project itself as an investor-friendly state, Karnataka finally agreed in-principle to allot land to European aviation and space major EADS near the upcoming Bangalore International Airport for its technology centre.

In a press statement on Monday, Karnataka commerce and industries department technical cell director M C Veerabhadraiah said the government would facilitate EADS’ proposal to set up the technology centre near the airport.

EADS has sought 6-10 acres of land near the airport where it proposes to start a campus-style institution to bring both the EADS subsidiaries and the Indian partners under one roof, performing engineering and information technology services.

The investment expected to be made is around Rs 11,000 crore over a period of 15 years.

“EADS has been advised to make a formal application to Karnataka Udyog Mitra, the nodal agency for industrial investments. The application will be forwarded to the State High Level Clearance Committee (SHLCC) on investments for final clearance,” Veerabhadraiah added.

When contacted, CEO of EADS Tom Enders told Business Standard: “We welcome any initiative regarding this. I can say that Bangalore has moved up on our shortlist.” But, this is not yet a decision, he added.

The government’s approval came after EADS expressed concern over the delay in the state’s response to its proposal. It is said that major airliners like Kingfisher and Deccan Aviation prevailed upon the government to take a quick decision on the EADS’ proposal.

Karnataka’s industries minister Katta Subrahmanya Naidu said EADS had been asked to submit a comprehensive plan detailing the investments proposed.

“We have 410 acres of land in our possession near BIAL for aviation related projects. We are ready to allot 25 acres to EADS in the same area off the national highway,” he added.

Last week, EADS said it planned to inaugurate the centre in early 2008. Central to the EADS campus will be an engineering unit called the Engineering Centre Airbus India.

It will be a 100-per cent owned subsidiary of Airbus and will represent the biggest on-site unit owned by an EADS division. The Airbus Engineering Centre will focus on high-end engineering analysis and design and will eventually work closely with several Indian aeronautic suppliers.

Mysore airport project inches ahead

BS Reporter / Chennai/ Mysore September 08, 2006
The Karnataka government on Thursday formally handed over 154 acres of land at Mandakalli on the Mysore-Ooty highway for the proposed Mysore airport project.

The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) handed over the land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). On behalf of the AAI, its deputy general manager M N N Rao took possession of the land in presence of deputy commissioner Selva Kumar, Mysore MP Vijayashankar, KIADB and AAI officials.

Later, Rao told reporters that the KIADB had promised to make available the remaining 20-acres, a dispute over which has been pending before the Karnataka High Court, in a month, after which work on the first phase of the airport will be taken up.

The first phase covers two runways, taxiway, terminal building, fire station, staff quarters and other structures on a 175-acre land at Mandakalli where presently there is a small airstrip. A Rs 26 crore tender has been called and the tenders were opened already.

The completion of the first phase will enable the operation of ATR-72 aircraft to Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. The proposed second phase requiring an additional 93 acres will enable operation of Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The deputy commissioner said that a notification has already been issued for acquiring the additional 93-acres of land for the second phase.

The first phase will be completed in 24 months, MP Vijayashankar added.

I have updated my Bangalore Showcase Thread with pics of South City (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=9917957#post9917957)

My Showcase thread now has an Update on Bangalore's New International Airport (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=389994&page=7&pp=20)

Ranging from Model Pics
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2869/dsc04496ur2.jpg

To construction pics
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8938/dsc04472xp9.jpg

So be sure to Check it out (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=389994&page=7&pp=20)

BMRDA plans township

Imagine not having to combat the traffic on your way back and forth from Electronics City. This could be a reality in three years when the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) completes its proposed integrated township at Bidadi.

Around 30,000 people work at Electronics City, which has over 100 information technology and electronic companies, according to official figures

The Bidadi township covers about 9,685 acres and would be developed within three years on a public-private partnership basis, Mr. Krishna said

The township is located about 39 km from Bangalore city and 4 km from the Bidadi, off the Bangalore-Mysore State Highway. It would be accessible from the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor.

The township is close to Bidadi Industrial area and the textile and multi-product industrial complex being developed by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) at Harohalli.

It will have rainwater harvesting, water recycling and sewage treatment facilities. An efficient solid waste management will be put in place.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority has planned four other townships at Ramanagaram, Sathnur, Solur and Nandagudi.

The aim of these townships, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority declares on its website, is "to de-congest Bangalore Metropolitan Area, comprising Bangalore Mahanagara Palike area, seven City Municipal Councils and Peripheral areas, and direct further growth into the Bangalore Metropolitan region by way of comprehensive development of new settlements in an integrated manner."

To facilitate access to these townships, BMRDA has taken up the development of a Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) and Intermediate Town Ring Road (ITRR) besides radial roads.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/08/stories/2006090813140300.htm

An update on the radical Infosys campus, "Sky City" planned for Bangalore:
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/4467/4zh7.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/2316/7ec8.jpg

Construction Update Reports (http://www.constructionupdate.com/construct/constructionworld/2006Issues/september2006/064.html):[Architect Hafeez Contractor] has designed residential and commerical structures in Shanghai and Dubai and is doing an Infosys structure in Hang Zhou in China, and is said to be in talks with builders in new York. Contractor's dream projects are the structures he is developing for Infosys all over India. Still at the conceptual state, Infosys Bangalore, dubbed 'Sky City' would be among the most innovative, with 30-floor structures to come up in wood.

With this in mind, I did a quick count of the floors in the renderings. The center, tallest is approx 35 stories in height. Notice, too, in the second rendering, a second collection of towers(?) in the background, right. Perhaps there will be 2+ 'clusters' in the campus?

I cant wait for them to finish construction of their alien structure.

Its been long time since we have had photos or news about new up coming projects in Bangalore has all the activities in Bangalore stopped ?

It's official: India's silicon City will be 'Bengaluru' from Nov 1 (http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=34283)



It's official. India's silicon City — Bangalore — will be renamed as "Bengaluru" from November 1.

The State Government has decided to implement a suggestion from Jnanpith awardee Dr U R Ananthamurthy that the IT City revert, along the lines of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, to its pre-colonial Kannada name "Bengaluru". Announcing this on Saturday after reviewing the progress made in the preparations for the year-long Suvarna Karnataka celebrations, Home and Law Minister M P Prakash said that a formal announcement in this regard would be made on November 1 during the inauguration of the celebrations, after obtaining the approval of the State cabinet.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike had on September 27, 2006 passed a resolution urging the government to change the name of the silicon City, after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy echoed predecessor N Dharam Singh's assurance that the government would accept Dr Ananthamurthy's recommendation.



And that`s not all....



The change of name will not be restricted to Bangalore alone. Several other cities, including Belgaum, Mangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Hospet and Hubli, will revert to their respective pre-colonial Kannada names, namely, Belagavi, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Hosapete and Hubballi respectively, Mr Prakash said.

This landmark will stand tall

DH NEWSSERVICE
BANGALORE:The promised“landmark of the City”– theRs 1,000-crore world-class,inter-modal transit centreat Majestic in Subhash Nagar – may not come out inthe originally proposedform,even as the processingof the bids of the five contenders would begin withinafortnight or so.

The transit point – thatwill integrate the KSRTC,BMTC, Bangalore Metroand a massive commercialcomplex – was originallyconceived as a 45-storey tower.

However, according tosources, this design hasbeen changed;now it will beasingle structure, 60storeys high.

According to a consultant involved in the project,the functions of the complex will remain the same,except that the design willbe more cost-effective andsuitable to the environment.

“The earlier design wasonly a concept. The new design keeps in mind the impact the high rise will haveon traffic on the surrounding roads. We are also considering the Floor Area Ratio allowed as per buildingbye-laws,” said the consultant.

As per the new design,the centre will have about 80lakh square feet area, withthe KSRTC station locatedon the ground floor and theBMTC station 10 metres below ground level.

The metro station would be 25 metres below groundlevel.

The transit area will bephysically segregated fromthe commercial areathrough landscaping andparking lots.

Status of project

However, according toKSRTC and BMTC Managing Director Upendra Tripathi, the final design willget a concrete shape shortly.“We are holding a meetingwith the stakeholders, including the Metro, to sortout these issues in threefour days,”he said.

While the real construction work will take sixmonths to begin,tender documents will be issued within a fortnight to the five bidders that have been shortlisted through a global tendering process.

The project will be takenup on Build-Operate-Transfer basis. The response tothe bids, their evaluationand finalisation will takesix months.

Flyover scrapped

Meanwhile, the 450-metre light-weight, easy-to-assemble ‘steel’ flyover, thatwas proposed to be builtaround the Shantala Circleat Majestic, has beenshelved.

According to M KShankaralinge Gowda,Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner, theflyover project was shelvedbecause it would affect themetro network,and the proposed transit centre.


Courtesy : Deccan Herald Bengalooru

Its been long time since we have had photos or news about new up coming projects in Bangalore has all the activities in Bangalore stopped ?

Not really. Check out magestom's Bangalore thread in the showcase gallery.

Plus we really need someone familiar with Bangalore to update us with information about Bangalore projects. There are dozens of projects and only someone who is familiar with Bangalore will know which are the ones to be highlighted, what's the status etc.

BTW welcome on board!

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=75251

Bangalore in fast lane, by mid-’08

Amba B. Bakshi
Posted online: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 0427 hours IST
Updated: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 1146 hours IST

Bangalore, October 9: The summer of 2008 will bring much cheer for the 6.5 million inhabitants of India’s IT capital Bangalore. Reason: The first phase of the Bangalore metro project covering 33 km is slated to be complete by March 2008 and the first of its kind in India — the elevated highway between the city and Electronic City — will be operational by June 2008.

The projects that have faced long delays are now finally underway. Work on the elevated highway project — under the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) — between Electronic City and the main city along the Hosur road started in July this year. Manoj Kumar, project director, says, “We started the work in July this year and are satisfied with the progress. It’s the first of its kind in India and will be a four-lane overhead service.”

“The work has to take place in two stages — ground work and the bridge work. The contractors are carrying out the ground work by widening the existing four-lane road and making service roads and provisions for drainage. Once they complete a stretch of one km, the bridge work will start while simultaneously carrying on the ground work. We expect the bridge work to begin next month,’’ he added. The elevated highway once ready will cut down travel time from 45 minutes to just 10 minutes. It will also aid the traffic coming to and fro from Chennai.

The elevated highway project was announced on September 27, 2004, contracts for which were expected to be awarded by March 31, 2005. However, the project got delayed due to litigation initiated by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE), which moved the high court as NHAI had asked it to modify its earlier project to avoid ‘clashing’ of the two projects. Subsequently, a compromise was reached whereby the elevated highway will be built at 5.5 metre above the ground level and once it reaches the NICE bridge, it will gradually fly over it at 11 metre above the ground level. Once the ‘hop’ is made, it will again come down to 5.5 metre.

Work on the Bangalore metro too is finally making a headway with a section of land acquisitions being completed. Transfer of public land is also underway and acquisitions for Phase I are expected to be completed by March 2007. The final location survey by RITES will take place in November this year and construction of viaducts likely to begin in December, say officials. Preparatory work such as shifting of utilities and design consultancy is underway and a number of contracts have been awarded.

Im glad B'lore is finally getting back on track with its infra stuff. And unlike Hyd, its megaprojects havent fallen victim to the former CM...yet.

Shangri-La Hotel in Bangalore, India

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/317/shangrilahotelbangalorehb5.jpg

Client: Adarsh Developers
Gross Floor Area: 172,500 sqft
Project Cost: S$50 million
Completion Date: 2007/08
Services: Architectural Design & Consultancy

The Shangri-La Hotel, Banglore is a five-Star hotel, strategically located along Palace Road in Bangalore. The guest rooms face one of the oldest Golf Course in Bangalore and the Old Palace building. The hotel is 18-storey tall with a three-storey basement. Surrounded presently by low-rise buildings, the hotel is visible from afar and is destined to be an important landmark in Bangalore.

The hotel’s facilities include food & beverage outlets, a 500-person capacity banquet hall, meeting rooms and boardrooms, a business centre, a health club and spa, and a gymnasium. A landscape deck with swimming pool and jacuzzi sits on the podium roof level while at the top of the tower are a sky lounge and a landscape roof garden terrace offering a panoramic view of Bangalore. A helipad is also available for those who choose to arrive in style.

Golden Gate Propreties (http://www.ggproperties.com/) has some nice projects in Bangalore, like:

Golden Grand: various towers up to 22 storeys
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5830/ggrandelevationrs7.gif
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1343/ggrandclubhousepe5.gif


Golden Palms: various towers up to 13, 10 storeys
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5725/gp2020arial20viewnu4.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7862/gpviewpicture1et5.jpg


Golden Blossom: various towers up to 15, 12 storeys
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8624/blossomdayeffectxq3.gif
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7990/blossomnighteffectvo0.gif

Bangalore emerging as hub of Chip Design, IP products

Bangalore Oct 29: Bangalore city, which has emerged as the Silicon Valley of the country with scores of major global software giants setting up offshore entities here, is now turning into a hub of chip design and Intellectual Property product development.

Though the city housed a number of world IT majors, it was the small and medium sized IT companies, both indigenous and multinational, that have emerged as the key players in developing semiconductor designs and IP products. Bangalore had over 1,500 small and medium IT enterprises, many of which were involved in chip design development. They have produced hundreds of IPs both in semiconductor design and a host of other IT products.

According to top officials of the city-based SMEs that have hundreds of IPs under their belt, as showcased in the IP Zone in the ongoing IT exposition 'Bangalore IT.In', the milieu in the high-tech city was conducive for developing exclusive technologies.

Mr Siva Doraiswamy, Analog Designer of the US-based Rambus Chip Technologies, told UNI that ''some sort of 'Eureka' has happened to India in general and Bangalore in particular. There is an onset of innovation in this country. This is because of the mind power that has decided not to go abroad and increasing cases of reverse brain drain that has seen thousands of Indians, who went to the US during the last two decades, coming back.'' He said ''Indians are dominating in semiconductor design development. India is producing a bigger share in IP products in semiconductors. Even in those IPs produced outside the country, it is the Indian engineers who are producing it.''

In view of the great strides the Indian companies have made in chip design development and IP products, the Karnataka Government, hosting Bangalore IT.In, was showcasing a representative set of companies developing IP in India, particularly in Bangalore. As part of the initiative, an exclusive area had been declared as 'IP Zone'.

''The IP Zone is an effort to highlight the fact that India is involved not only in delivering IT services, but also creating IP.

The theme of the IP Zone is 'Innovative India' and on display are products developed by these companies. Visitors to IP Zone can see how these products are used in daily life,'' Karnataka IT, BT and Science and Technology Secretary M N Vidyashankar said.

STPI Director (Bangalore and Hyderabad) B V Naidu said ''while a lot is written about the IT companies in India and Bangalore, there is another side to our IT story -- the IP creation. These companies, both Indian and multinational, are engaged in developing and commercialising IP in India. IP Zone is an initiative in line with our ongoing efforts to create a supportive ecosystem within India for the growth of high technology companies developing products and IP.'' Rambus Managing Director Prakash Bare said the IPs developed in India were increasingly gaining acceptance world over. Even countries like Japan, which always remained rigid in recognising high technology developed in third world, was accepting Indian chip designs. Rambus, which had set up its second base in the city, was a major in development of high performance memory interface products.

He said the biggest advantage the city could boast of was talent availability. The city was attracting the cream of highly educated IT talent. This had helped SMEs to achieve high level of chip design development. ''Chips sell because of sofware. The city being a hub of software development, chip designing firms will automatically come here to set up shop.''

Mr Ochintya Sharma, Vice-President (Engineering) of SiRF, which developed newer technologies in GPS, Wireless and Mobile TV, said the explosion in the number of small companies in Bangalore was due to entrepreneural zeal that was being seen in the country lately.

''Improving financial health among the young entrepreneurs is resulting in people taking risks by expoloring new businesses. We are also seeing global talent coming back to India and this knowledge is being put to good use with semiconductor industry being the beneficiary,'' he added.

GPS developer XORA Managing Director Promod Jajoo said Indian engineers developing complex technology were gaining invaluable experience due to the entry of world technology majors. ''The depth of technological knowledge was becoming deeper. This is one of the reasons why Indian companies are producing more IPs,'' he opined.

Mr Uday Birje, Country Manager and Vice-President (India and ASEAN), NetDevices Networks, said it was easy to put in a team of highly talented technical minds in Bangalore. ''We, being a US-based company, decided to open a subsidiary here and to the amazement of our bosses back in the US, we could put in a team of 50 engineers within a quarter. This team was responsible in producing best products at one third of the cost compared to what we are spending in the US. We must maintain this edge when it comes to development of chip-based technologies,'' he added.

UNI

Construction progress at Prestige Shantiniketan

http://www.prestigeconstructions.com/shantiniketan/progress.htm

Construction progress at HM World City

http://www.hmworldcity.com/progress.htm

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=75251
it takes too much time to read can u paste more pics

it takes too much time to read can u paste more pics

Welcome!

It's not so easy to get pics.

http://www.business-standard.com/economy/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=263671&subLeft=1&leftnm=3
Elevated expressway: Consortium achieves financial closure

Mahesh Kulkarni / Chennai/ Bangalore November 03, 2006
The Soma Enterprise Limited-led consortium, which is implementing the 9-km-long elevated expressway project between the Electronic City and Silk Board junction in Bangalore, has achieved the financial closure for the project.

The company in joint venture with Nagarjuna Constructions Company and Maytas Infra Pvt Ltd, was awarded the Rs 765-crore elevated expressway project by the National Highway Authority of India early this year on a negative grant of Rs 16 crore.

The consortium has secured Rs 600 crore debt for the project from a consortium of 10 banks led by Canara Bank, which will alone contribute Rs 100 crore. The balance, Rs 175 crore, of the project cost has been pooled in by the three consortium partners equally, SEL director Ankineedu Maganti told Business Standard.

The work on the construction of the elevated expressway has already commenced with the completion of soil investigation and design work. The foundation work at the site has begun and the casting yards are ready for the casting of super structures.

The project is expected to be completed in two years and the expressway will be opened in July 2008. The consortium will build and operate the road for 20 years before transferring it to NHAI.

Maganti said, “We have achieved the financial closure in a record time and as agreed with NHAI at the time of bidding we have paid back Rs 16 crore negative grant to them today.”

The consortium has formed a special purpose vehicle – Bangalore Elevated Tollway Limited – for this project. The expressway will be an access-controlled, elevated four-lane road from the Silk Board junction to Electronic City (including interchange) on Hosur Road.

The road below the elevation will be widened into 6 lanes with two lanes of service roads on either side. NHAI has proposed to widen the existing four-lane section between Electronic City and the Tamil Nadu border (km 33.2) to six lanes.

Beyond the Electronic City junction (from km 18.8 to km 33), the project consortium will construct two vehicular underpasses by box pushing technique.

Wow! is there any other road project in recent times that was bid/won for a negative grant?

babji,
considering the road connects important industrial zones in TN to the North there is assured traffic density on this road. Not to mention, intra bangalore- electronics city traffic.
Maytas et.al are sure to get their monies worth many times over.

Look at some 'Hosur Road' pics.
There is traffic cam on hosur road bangalorelive.in

babji,
considering the road connects important industrial zones in TN to the North there is assured traffic density on this road. Not to mention, intra bangalore- electronics city traffic.
Maytas et.al are sure to get their monies worth many times over.

Look at some 'Hosur Road' pics.
There is traffic cam on hosur road bangalorelive.in

fully agree with you.
hopefully, this will lead the way for more such projects to come up.

JAINS SWADESH
NO.61/A 1, UTTRAHALLI HOBLI GUBBALAL VILLAGE,
BANGALORE
http://www.jainhousing.com/Projects/blore/swadesh.asp

G+ 26 floors - however render seems to have less.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4652/jainswadeshelevationay6.jpg

Bearys Lakeside Habitat

from The Hindu newspaper

First twin tower Residential Apartments in Bangalore, the tallest in South India, 72 metre high, Bearys Lakeside Habitat off Bellary Road at Kodigehalli, which has ground floor plus 23 floors in each tower. The towers are inter-connected at the 15th floor. Entire building will be illuminated to give a great impact in the night. The project is nearing completion and is expected to be ready by December 2006.

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/1029/bearyshabitat2tc2.jpg

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6616/bearyslakesidehabitat1nq5.jpg

Bearys Lakeside Habitat

from The Hindu newspaper

First twin tower Residential Apartments in Bangalore, the tallest in South India, 72 metre high, Bearys Lakeside Habitat off Bellary Road at Kodigehalli, which has ground floor plus 23 floors in each tower. The towers are inter-connected at the 15th floor. Entire building will be illuminated to give a great impact in the night. The project is nearing completion and is expected to be ready by December 2006.

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/1029/bearyshabitat2tc2.jpg

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6616/bearyslakesidehabitat1nq5.jpg


Good find Sun:)

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/13/stories/2006111319880100.htm

Electric buses may roll in soon
http://i15.tinypic.com/2vd19p0.jpg

BANGALORE: The State Government's ambitious plan to introduce electric trolley buses for operation, initially in Mysore, is expected to have the support of the Union Government. The Centre has told States to introduce electric buses for public transport in an effort to reduce air and noise pollution in all the major cities of the country. The project is expected to be cleared under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) programme.

The State is expected to be first in the country to have electric trolley buses for public transport and, according to the Government plan, the new buses will cover a 65-km route length encompassing all the arterial roads in Mysore. Based on the feedback, similar buses will be introduced in Bangalore and Mangalore.
The introduction of the buses has been described by Minister for Transport N. Cheluvarayaswamy as a "Suvarna Karnataka gift" to the people of the State.

The detailed project report being prepared by the Infrastructure Development Corporation, Karnataka, and Rail India Technical and Economic Services is in the final stages. It will be submitted to the Government shortly. The proposal will be placed before the State Cabinet for approval after the authorities concerned vet the report. As per a tentative plan, the State Government is expected to call for global tenders to supply the electric buses and also commission them, as electric cables have to be laid all along the route to power the buses.

Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy, who visited some European countries along with Principal Secretary, Transport, D. Thangaraj, told The Hindu that the State Government would submit the proposal to the Union Government for clearance under the JNNURM.

Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, M.R. Sreenivasamurthy, who was earlier vice-chairman and managing director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, has prepared the proposal, having studied the operations of electric buses in Lyon in France, which is a heritage city like Mysore.
Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy said the air-conditioned electric buses were similar to the existing hi-tech buses being run by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the KSRTC. They could carry 80 to 100 passengers. The buses were noiseless and vibration- and pollution-free compared to diesel-powered ones. The cost of tickets for the electric buses would be around the same as that for the Volvo buses in operation in Bangalore, the Minister said.

Dont know if it has been posted here before. This is from July.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/5171/high1755314qk5.jpg

India's first international style hop on, hop off tourist sight seeing service using double decker buses launched from Bangalore Palace grounds on Friday. Last scion of wadiyar dynasty Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar flagged off the buses.

guys...be sure not to miss the weekly " golden south" programme on cnn ibn during this month......potraying the cultural, economic and the political success of the south...!!!

Rs. 22,536-crore CDP for Bangalore gets approval (http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/14/stories/2006111409970400.htm)

BANGALORE: For integrated development of infrastructure services in the proposed Greater Bangalore, the State Government has approved a Rs. 22,536-crore City Development Plan (CDP) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

A steering committee headed by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy approved the outlay last week. The Union, State governments and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) will invest in ratio of 35:15:50 in the JNNURM, which will be implemented in the next seven years. In the case of Mysore city, the ratio of investment by the Centre, State and Mysore City Corporation is 80:10.10. The Centre has cleared JNNURM in 63 cities across the country with the required investment of Rs. 1,20,536 crore.

JNNURM will cover Rajarajeshwarinagar, Dasarahalli, Bommanahalli, Krishnarajapuram, Mahadevapura, Byatarayanapura, Yelahanka city municipal councils, Kengeri Town Municipal Council, BMP and 111 villages adjacent to the BMP that will merge with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, official sources in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike told The Hindu.

The Government issued a notification on November 2, 2006, for merger of seven CMCs and one TMC with the BMP to constitute Greater Bangalore.

The Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Ltd., which is an organisation empanelled for the purpose of the JNNURM by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, has prepared the CDP of Bangalore. After clearance by the Centre, the steering committee approved the CDP.

The BMP has to raise Rs. 8,000 crore for implementing various projects under JNNURM. Officials in the BMP said it would raise a capital of Rs. 4,000 crore by issuing bonds to 10 financial institutions. The Unit Trust of India (UTI) had come forward to help the BMP on issuing bonds, the officials said.

The capital investment allotted for some projects are: Rs. 6,034 crore for basic services to the poor; Rs. 2,788 crore for drinking water supply; Rs. 800 crore for waste management; Rs. 1,139 crore for storm water and drainage network; Rs. 7536 crore for roads and Rs. 226 crore for tourism/heritage/ urban renewal.

In a project related to providing basic services to the poor, the Centre would share 50 per cent of the cost, the officials said. Officials of the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation and the BMP held 60 meetings with various agencies and stakeholders to finalise 19 projects under Bangalore CDP.

Projects related to power, health, telecom, education and wage employment are not included in JNNURM.

The projects will be executed by the respective State agencies providing the services. Agencies such as Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Slum Development Board, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and Lake Development Authority are now preparing detailed project reports. The expected outcome under JNNURM included access to basic services to all urban residents, establishment of citywide framework for planning and governance, making of agencies of urban governance financially self-sustainable through reforms to major revenue instruments.

From Deccan Herald:

45 global investors eye Bidadi township

At a preliminary meeting of investors and developers from India and abroad, convened by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), the first question posed by potential investors to the chief minister was: “Is there a risk of the project getting delayed due to land acquisition hassles?”

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday announced that a global tender would be floated for the Bidadi Integrated Township Project within two months.

At a preliminary meeting of investors and developers from India and abroad, convened by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), the first question posed by potential investors to the chief minister was: “Is there a risk of the project getting delayed due to land acquisition hassles?”

“The Bidadi township is the first project among the five satellite towns proposed for development over the next five years. I guarantee you that land acquisition will not be a problem, especially because the project site falls in my constituency (Ramanagara). However, I am keen that farmers (land losers) be given good compensation – at market price – for their lands,” said Mr Kumaraswamy.


BMRDA Commissioner Sudhir Krishna and Additional Chief Secretary A K Agrawal, discussed the approach and scope of the project through a presentation. The meeting was attended by as many as 45 leading investors, including those from Singapore, Malaysia, Holland, Netherlands and the UAE.

Flagship project

“It will be the flagship project of the Karnataka government. The idea is to develop an integrated township that not only creates housing, but integrates economic activity as well. It should help reduce pressure on Bangalore City. We want to reduce the bid time as we have set a deadline of two years for the basic layout and five years for completion,” said Mr Sudhir Krishna.

“We will ensure transparency in the selection of private sector developer. There are two stages – pre-qualification stage and bidding. The last date to submit pre-qualification application is November 30. The bidding will be through by end of December.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy said: “The BMRDA has earmarked more than 9,000 acres for the proposed township at Bidadi. The other four proposed townships at Solur, Ramanagara, Sathnur and Nandagudi will be implemented simultaneously.”

THE BLUEPRINT

Land earmarked: 6,959 acres (private), 2,725 acres (govt)

Villages in proposed area: Byramangala, Bannigiri,

Hosur, K G Gollarapalya, Kanchugaranahalli, Kanchugaranahalli Kaval, Aralalasandra and Kempayyanapalya.

Project site (distance): Bangalore city (35 km),

State Highway(3 km), National Highway (15 km),

Bidadi Rly station (9 km) and New airport (45 km)

Indicative land use: Industrial (25%), Residential (25%), park and open spaces (15%), civic amenities’ space (10%) and other utilities (25%)

Rs. 22,536-crore CDP for Bangalore gets approval (http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/14/stories/2006111409970400.htm)

BANGALORE: For integrated development of infrastructure services in the proposed Greater Bangalore, the State Government has approved a Rs. 22,536-crore City Development Plan (CDP) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

A steering committee headed by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy approved the outlay last week. The Union, State governments and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) will invest in ratio of 35:15:50 in the JNNURM, which will be implemented in the next seven years. In the case of Mysore city, the ratio of investment by the Centre, State and Mysore City Corporation is 80:10.10. The Centre has cleared JNNURM in 63 cities across the country with the required investment of Rs. 1,20,536 crore.

Wow! this is hugh.
does anyone have a lsit of other cities approved ...

Hampson sets up plant in Bangalore (http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=20017&lmn=1)


The new facility marks the British precision engineering group`s first investment in India and the first outside the UK and USA

Hampson Industries Plc, the UK-based precision engineering group, on Thursday inaugurated its manufacturing facility in Bangalore. The new facility marks Hampson’s first investment in India and the first outside the UK and USA. The Group's principal focus is to create global competitive advantage for its key customers and the new facility in Bangalore is a foundation stone of this strategy, Hampson said. There are presently about 600,000 vehicles fitted with turbochargers in India with market projections signalling a tripling of demand by 2010.

"This new facility will become a showcase for our manufacturing and engineering expertise as well as the focal point for our strategy to provide competitive advantage to our customers. The new facility provides us with not only a competitive cost base but a strategic manufacturing location in its own right, from which we intend to capitalise on the burgeoning growth opportunities in the domestic Indian and Far East markets," said Hampson Group CEO, Kim Ward.

The first phase of this investment will see the manufacture of high precision, close tolerance components for automotive customers, primarily for turbocharger applications. The plant has been deliberately designed in campus form to allow for modular expansion of up to a further three manufacturing units, each of about 50,000 sq.ft. As part of the second phase of investment, Hampson intends to further extend its manufacturing capabilities to produce precision and engineered components, structures and assemblies for its global aerospace customers. Subsequent phases will be activated to increase the manufacturing capacity as and when the customer demand grows.

"Hampson is already a global leader in the manufacture and supply of small, close tolerance components and assemblies for the turbocharger industry. As we look to expand our manufacturing capacity with the progressively increasing demand of our global customers, our new facility will service not only export markets, but will also manufacture products for rising domestic and South East Asia demand," said Roger Mackrill, President of Hampson’s Precision Automotive Division.

From TOI Epaper:


CMH Road alignment will stay
Government Order Gives Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Green Signal To Continue Work
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: The government on Wednesday passed an order stating that the alignments for the Metro Rail, including the one on CMH Road, should be retained.
The government order sent to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC), states: “The government has examined the matter in detail and decided that in the overall interest of the project, there is no necessity to consider any changes in the alignment in any area including CMH Road.” The order has permitted the BMRCL to proceed with the implementation of the project. The Metro Rail project, which has started utility shifting along most places where the project is supposed to take off, has been unable to tackle the CMH Road alignment because of protests by citizens. Ditto is the case at Maha Kavi Kuvempu (MKK) Road, from Rajajinagar to Malleswaram.
Here again, traders and shop-owners have been asking for a change in alignment. Chief minister Kumaraswamy had even paid an early morning visit to CMH Road and heard the residents and traders.
Meanwhile, Imtiaz Ahmed, president of the CMH Road Traders Association, says that if the government is serious about not changing the alignment, they would resort to legal measures. “As on Tuesday, we were told that that the CM had not yet taken a decision on the alignment. So how did the government decide and announce this? We will move the court.’’



BANGALORE METRO Metro Rail still in Stone Age!
Bangalore: When the foundation stone was laid earlier this year for the Bangalore Metro Rail project, it gave some hope to the people of the city. But since then all that has been happening is shifting of utilities.
Citizens want to see something tangible pertaining to the project. But that will take some more time. Construction work will start only in middle of January 2007, according to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) managing director V Madhu.
The BMRC has issued tenders for construction of the via ducts along the alignment. The last date for applying for the tenders has been fixed as November 30. BMRC has also issued tenders for appointing general consultants of the project and the tender will be opened on January 5.
The RITES has been entrusted with preparing the design for the station buildings between the 7-km stretch of Byapanahalli and cricket stadium. The land acquisition committee headed by Thomas, has invited land owners to respond and give the fair market value for their properties. The committee is determining the value of land being acquired for the project.
The government has formed a committee headed by PWD chief engineer Jayaprakash, to suggest market value of structures as well.
Work on drilling of borewell rigs in nine places in the city is done. Also, the BMRC has completed planting of 15,000 saplings as part of environment rehabilitation.

From TOI Epaper:

Status Report of Hosur Road Expressway


TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: All those aggrieved women working in Electronics City, who met the chief minister recently and the deputy chief minister on Tuesday, looked to be at their wits’ end. But they can look forward to some relief on Hosur Road soon.
First, rapid work is on to complete the service roads and widen the main carriageway. That’s expected to be completed by January. “And once that’s done, there would be a broader road to commute than there is now,” says an official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which has undertaken the Hosur Road elevated expressway project. He says a portion of the road would be blocked off to build the expressway pillars, but the commutable road would still be broader than now.
The other relief is coming in the form of diversion of heavy vehicles at the Attibele junction.
The PWD has promised to complete the road connecting Attibele to Sarjapur Road by January. About 6 km of that 25-km road remains to be done. And once that’s done, heavy vehicles will be compelled to take that road and not clog the stretch from Attibele to the Silk Board junction.
The expressway work itself is said to be on track, to be completed by July 2008. Work on piers (pillars) has begun at three locations. Soma Enterprise, one of the three companies implementing the project, said it had just imported a piling rig from Italy for this work.
On November 2, the project promoters announced the financial closure of the project, with Rs 600 crore of debt being raised from a consortium of banks, led by Canara Bank.

HOSUR RD EXPRESSWAY

Stage of work Service roads: 10 km to be done, 6 km under progress. Expected to be completed by January Erection of drains: 7.5 km done. Expected to be fully completed by January Elevated expressway: Pier construction has just started



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Status Report of BIAL


Building begins to take final shape
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: If you stand on the Bellary Road, nothing is visible. But there is a hectic day-and-night activity to build the Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli just beyond the compound wall.
Sixteen months into construction, the first pre-cast element of the roof has been put up on the terminal building. With this, the construction has progressed significantly. The building has begun to take its final shape, with concreting masonry and plastering works on.
The air traffic control tower — a barometer of the speed of the airport construction — has touched 52 metres out of the total height of 65 metres.
At the runway, apron and taxiway, the base layer of the black top has progressed, while earthwork for rapid exits commenced.

REPORT CARD 17 MONTHS TO GO

Work on
Terminal building: First element of pre-cast roof put in place Technical and administrative building finishing touches
ATC tower has reached 52 metres
Boundary wall nearly complete
Wet mix macadem on runway, taxiway, main access road.
Earthwork for rapid exits Apron concreting Power switching station being set up
Main access road, secondary access road and air side services road
Ancillary buildings


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Status Report of BMIC Peripheral Expressway


Peripheral road in sight
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Though slow, the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) peripheral road from Mysore Road to Madavara near Tumkur Road is coming up.
The 18-km stretch starting from Bidadi to Madavara , which cuts through Magadi main road, has been raised a few feet above the ground level for a comfortable drive. For the convenience of villagers to go through one end of the road to the other, underpasses have been constructed every 500 mts.
Promoters of the BMIC project, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), have taken care to grow land scape grass (lawn grass) on either side of the road.
Huge spaces have been left open on the entire route for the construction of compound wall. One can witness natural lakes and also BDA’s mega project, Visvesvaraya layout, while passing through this stretch.
On conservation of lakes, NICE representative maintained that none of the lakes on the stretch have been affected due to the ongoing project.


http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOIBG/2006/11/16/4/Img/Pc0041200.jpg

hey did'nt know work was also on Mys Rd - Tumkur Road section also.

thanks

From TOI Epaper:


Road to prosperity
Bellary Road, NH7, is now the gateway to a world of possibilities. How ready is it? S Kushala and Smitha Rao take a reality drive

Bangalore: To understand the significance of National Highway 7, Bellary Road in Bangalore’s radar presently, get a hold on this. So far, every year 1.5 million vehicles ply on this road. Once the International Airport at Devanahalli gets its flying start, traffic here would go up to about 11.5 million per year.
That’s why Bellary Road is suddenly the cynosure of all eyes — the government, civic agencies, builders, developers, land buyers and sellers. This road singularly leads to Devanahalli where work on the international airport is under way. Bellary Road is now to Bangalore what Hebbal Flyover was when it kicked off.
Development at Devanahalli is the prerogative of two agencies, the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) and the Bangalore International Airport Planning Authority (BIAPA). Can one road take the bulk of traffic within the city, of the city as also traffic that will inevitably follow when airport opens?
A spanking new expressway that connects the airport with NH7 as also the Outer Ring Road is supposed to tackle this sharp spike in traffic.
Explains BMRDA Commissioner Sudhir Krishna, “Devanahalli comes under the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and includes urban and rural panchayats. NH7 will not be able to cope with the traffic that’s bound to be there with airport.
The Bellary Road to Devanahalli expressway starts at a point on Outer Ring Road and goes onto Challakere via Bagalur and then to international airport. All ORR traffic heading to Devanahalli will benefit by this.’’
The 25-km expressway, like other sprawling ones at Delhi-Gurgaon, is an access-controlled, toll road. The BMRDA and the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) are the implementing agencies for the project, though an initial survey on the project feasibility was done by RITES.
An initial estimate showed that every 1 km would cost a whopping Rs 5 crore. Which means that the 25-km stretch could easily cost upwards of Rs 125 crore. Work on this project has not begun on the ground but is slated to be completed around the same time the airport is completed, that’s around —-.
The expressway is just one of the projects aimed at connectivity with the city as well as satellite towns and to the airport. Surveys have been done for the Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) and Intermediate Ring Road (IRR).
“The National Highways Authority of India has sought proposals from agencies. This is the initial plan for NH7. In the second phase, there will be roads and expressways beyond Devanahalli so that it will connect STRR and NH 207. Therefore, the entire area will open up for development’’ says Krishna.
In the meantime, its appeal seems to be irresistible. Even as you are miles away from Devanahalli on NH7, a prominent hoarding announces — ‘Come to Devanahalli, a safe haven for investors, property buyers, infrastructure developers, NRIs...’
A FEW HITCHES
The Yelahanka city road joining the bypass of NH has not been geometrically well planned. A big island or a rotary is needed to control the speed of the vehicles. Accidents occur at this point which can be avoided by putting up a traffic island, traffic expert M N Sreehari observed.
A temple at Byatrayanapura has not been removed though road has been widened on either sides with a temple standing bang in the middle of the road.

VEHICLE TRAFFIC
Five years ago PCUs per day From Bangalore 26,800 From KR Puram 17,800 From Tumkur 11,200

AFTER FIVE YEARS
The corridor from Mehkri circle upto Devanahalli handles 11,000 PCU per hour. The ring road traffic — Tumkur Road and KR Puram Road — is about 8,000 PCUs per hour. Estimated traffic after the completion of the NH upgradation — 18,000 PCUs per hour.

BLUEPRINT WHICH NEVER TOOK SHAPE

‘Northern Corridor of Bangalore’, as BMP had envisaged, is a project to improve the stretch from Hebbal Junction to Minsk Square with a futuristic approach for 2023.
Covering the overall development of the 7.1 km corridor starting from Minsk Square to Hebbal junction encompassing 13 junctions; parallely, the roads from KR Circle to Basaveswara Circle and from SBM Circle to Basaveswara Circle were also linked as these two stretches are linked to Hebbal road corridor.
The corridor, estimated at Rs 20 crore, was to be widened to a six lane carriageway, along with construction of parking and bus bays, remodelling of pavements, automated and synchronised traffic signals, remodelling of storm water drains, installation of ducts, construction of grade separator and pedestrian subways.
The main components of the project were widening of the Windsor Manor bridge, grade separator at Cauvery junction and four pedestrian subways at Sanjaynagar and Ganganagar markets, Palace Guttahalli circle and Sophia school.
The project involved land acquisition to a tune of 29,000 square metres. But the hitch was fully grown trees that dot the corridor. According to the project report, Minsk Square to Hebbal Junction has 764 trees of which 423 trees had to be felled.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOIBG/2006/11/18/2/Img/Pc0021000.jpg


Bottleneck junction
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Devanahalli: Five years ago, travelling on Bellary road cutting through Mehkri Circle was a nightmare. The narrow road which is a main corridor carrying heavy traffic would be perennially clogged as the junction could not accommodate vehicles from four roads. The only solution was to widen the passage from the Cauvery junction up to Hebbal circle and further down towards Devanahalli.
Cut to the present: the passage is smooth and vehicles zip across without any hitch.
The first bottleneck was cleared by the BMP which constructed the underpass at Mehkri Circle that smoothened the traffic from Ramana Maharshi road to Bellary road; Jayamahal road to IISc road via Sadashivanagar.
However, the passage got cleared but further up the Hebbal junction was the next congestion spot as the vehicles would clog in the circle. A solution came in the form of a flyover by BDA built on Clover Loop technology with five arms connecting the highway and the ring road.
Also, the six-laning of the highway was taken up simultaneously in tandem with the announcement of the International Airport at Devanahalli by National Highways Authorities after which the traffic has been smoothened.
According to P Ramanathan, assistant project director of National Highways, the 32 km from Hebbal to Devanahalli town, the road has been widened to 60 metres — 3 lanes on each side with central median and service roads. The road has two road over bridges that are under construction at Doddajala and near the airport. Work on widening of 15 km is remaining with the NH spending Rs 122 crore on the entire project. Nearly 69 hectares of land, both government and private, have been acquired for this road upgradation which has been designed to last for five years without maintenance, informed Ramanathan.
The drive along the corridor may be relaxing and hassle-free, but you are not spared of a shocker. Hit the Cauvery junction where all the traffic piles up. From there, a plan to de-congest this circle which has four roads joining it, was drawn up by the BMP which never took off.


ON FAST TRACK: The flyover construction work near the Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOIBG/2006/11/18/2/Img/Pc0021100.jpg

BIAL, by the end of the decade, will have 3 major roads leading to it - NH7 (fully 6 laned with service roads by 2008), expressway from ORR, and STRR connecting with NH-207 (not directly from B'lore city, but to be used by people of the BMRDA townships...the Bidadi township groundwork has supposedly started).

Elitahomes (Keppel Singapore + Purvankara) Promenade

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8260/elitapromenade2xt7.jpg

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3009/elitahomespromenadoct20ad8.jpg

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/1484/elitahomespromenadoct20vc3.jpg

^^ Hmmmmm, work is progressing fast. I had gone to this site on February 2006. Earth work had just started then. If I remember correct, there is no piling for this highrise.

Brigade Millenium is next to this project and the area is JP Nagar.

1.4 lakh apartments in Banglore within 2yrs (http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=17831)

The real estate sector in Bangalore, which has been growing around 30% for the last two years, is expected to grow at the same pace this year as well.

Addressing a press conference to announce 'Realty 2006' organised by Karnataka Ownership Apartments Promoters Assocation (KOAPA), Balakrishna Hegde, president of KOAPA, said the city is experiencing fast growth due to expansion of the IT sector in the south and east of the city. The upcoming international airport in the north, too, is fuelling the realty boom.

As the city is expanding, nearly 1.4 lakh apartment units are in the various stages of construction and are expected to be ready in two years. Presently 30-32 million sq ft (30,000 apartment units) of residential space is being absorbed annually in Bangalore, which is second only to Mumbai, he added.

Of the 1.4 lakh apartment units under construction, the budget segment and mid-segments comprise 30% each, and the balance makes up the luxury or high-end segment.

Just like the hotel industry, everyone's trying to cater only to the rich. :ohno:

it is kinda surprising that these luxury and high end apartments have such high demand. though middle class is growing, it is hard to believe so many people can afford tens of lakhs so easily.

it is kinda surprising that these luxury and high end apartments have such high demand. though middle class is growing, it is hard to believe so many people can afford tens of lakhs so easily.

They cant. Its investors.Thats how high end real estate works, initially.

From TOI Epaper:

State goes all out to retain Toyota’s second car plant

Bangalore: Karnataka is in no mood to let its biggest automobile catch look elsewhere. Industries minister Katta Subramanya Naidu drove down to the Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) facility in Bidadi near here on Tuesday to hold talks with the company top brass. The mission: making sure Toyota's second plant takes shape in Bangalore amidst rumours that Uttaranchal could turn into a viable alternative.
Naidu met TKM managing director A Toyoshima and deputy managing director K K Swamy. When contacted Swamy said, "It was a routine visit. I had called the minister over and he responded. He was also interested in seeing the facility."
But sources said it was more than just that. It is learnt that Naidu had visited the TKM management to ensure that no stone was left unturned to see that the additional car plant came up in the same campus. The management has been looking for better facilities in and around the Bidadi facility, especially doing up some of the connecting stretches. The road connecting the proposed plant was also a talking point.
States like Uttaranchal had got in touch with TKM, as labour issues were becoming a headache for the Japanese multinational in India's software capital.
The employees union at TKM has struck work thrice since the facility took shape in Bangalore in 1999. The last strike happened earlier this year. At that time officials had told TOI that going out of the state for the second plant was a possibility.
But it is now becoming increasingly clear that TKM will set up its second plant too in Bangalore on account of the huge piece of land they own in Bidadi (432 acres).
The second plant would look to produce small cars which could fill a major void in its product pipeline.
Its existing plant has a capacity to churn out 60,000 units a year and according to sources the new plant will have a capacity to produce over 1.25 lakh units.


If TKM is able to achieve its targeted 10% market share in passenger cars by 2010, it will give a good fillip to Karnataka as an auto manufacturing destination.

Tata Motors planning a Light Vehicles Plant in Dharwad and Volvo is looking at expanding its current assembly plant at Hoskote near Bangalore, per recent news reports.

Hilton Residences

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9104/hiltonbangalorejc8.jpg

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3827/hiltonbangalore1dl6.jpg

Location : Golf Link Business Park

Forum @ Prestige Shantiniketan

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/5351/forumwhitefieldna1.jpg

After metro cities, now B’lore to implement TDR (http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE120061124020102&Page=1&Title=Bangalore&Topic=0)

BANGALORE: After Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, Bangalore will now implement Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for orderly growth of the city. TDR will ensure growth without hampering the interests of property owners, a part of whose land would be acquired for road widening.

The latest amendment to the rule will facilitate sale of Development Rights certificate across the city, as property owners were earlier permitted to sell them only within their zone.

Implementing TDR would benefit developers, who despite losing the land, would be able to retain the construction of floor area permitted to them and would get an additional 15 per cent in lieu of the land lost in the form of TDR for future rights.

Karnataka Ownership Apartment Promoters Association (KOAPA), which has been promoting TDR with the Government, was of the opinion that it would also increase the value of the property in view of availability of wide roads.

KOAPA President Balakrishna Hegde told reporters that, currently, there was lack of awareness among property owners on TDR and there is need to increase the same.

Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Commissioner K Jairaj had on Tuesday stated that with the formation of Greater Bangalore, the additional floor area provided under the TDR could be used in the entire city.

The BMP planned to employ the scheme in road widening projects to be taken up on 85 roads.

After metro cities, now B’lore to implement TDR (http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE120061124020102&Page=1&Title=Bangalore&Topic=0)

BANGALORE: After Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, Bangalore will now implement Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for orderly growth of the city. TDR will ensure growth without hampering the interests of property owners, a part of whose land would be acquired for road widening.

The latest amendment to the rule will facilitate sale of Development Rights certificate across the city, as property owners were earlier permitted to sell them only within their zone.

Implementing TDR would benefit developers, who despite losing the land, would be able to retain the construction of floor area permitted to them and would get an additional 15 per cent in lieu of the land lost in the form of TDR for future rights.

Karnataka Ownership Apartment Promoters Association (KOAPA), which has been promoting TDR with the Government, was of the opinion that it would also increase the value of the property in view of availability of wide roads.

KOAPA President Balakrishna Hegde told reporters that, currently, there was lack of awareness among property owners on TDR and there is need to increase the same.

Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Commissioner K Jairaj had on Tuesday stated that with the formation of Greater Bangalore, the additional floor area provided under the TDR could be used in the entire city.

The BMP planned to employ the scheme in road widening projects to be taken up on 85 roads.

Work has started on Bangalore's 'tallest' building Northstar at Brigade Gateway

Videos

http://www.brigadegroup.com/apartments/gateway/status_videos.htm

Photos

http://www.brigadegroup.com/apartments/gateway/status_photos.htm

how far will this project be from UB City?

^^
Brigade Northstar is being developed on the former Kirloskar property, around 40 acres or so, between Rajajinagar (Dr. Rajkumar Road) and Malleshwaram (off the B'lore City-Yeshwantpur railway line). Its around 8-9 kms from UB City and the CBD. And very close to Metro Cash 'N' Carry and NH-4. I think its the first major realty project in North-West B'lore.

Thanks Naveen.

So when you say CBD, you mean there are other projects planned in the UB City vicinity?

Keppel-Purvankara Kanakapura

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6285/keppelkanakpurarspmy8.jpg

Looks like the 40-storey Brigade Northstar won't be Bangalore's tallest for long. Bearys Group is planning a 45 storey residential tower and a commercial skyscraper!

Bangalore gets a slice of New York (http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bangalore-gets-a-slice-of-new-york/27160-7.html)
Deepa Balakrishnan
CNN-IBN

Posted Monday , November 27, 2006 at 20:42
Updated Monday , November 27, 2006 at 20:54

DREAM DESTINATION: Private developers are all set to bring in a slice of New York into the garden city of Bangalore.


Bangalore: Private developers are all set to bring in a slice of New York into the garden city of Bangalore. A whole league of sky scrappers and multi-towered complexes are being built by private developers and corporates giants in Bangalore—something that will perhaps define its future look.

Multi tower complex UB Towers, Vijay Mallya's pet project is being built on the lines of New York’s empire state building in the heart of Bangalore. The sky scrapper looks down on almost half the city.

"The skyline or the elevation of this project is modeled much like the empire state building of New York. The height of UB Tower is 126 metres which would make it the tallest building in the city," said CEO, UB Global V Shashikanth.

The fast paced development coupled with skyrocketing real estate prices make Bangalore a dream destination for corporate developers. But it wasn’t so long ago when just 100 metres tall Public Utility building used to be the only sky scrapper in the city.

Besides UB Towers there is another multi-storied complex, constructed on the lines of Dubai's Al Burj hotel and Lakeside Habitat, the city's tallest residential building of 25 floors built by the Bearys Group that will be ready for occupation in next three-months.

"We are projecting Lakeside habitat as a welcome arch to the new Bangalore," Managing Director, Bearys Group Syed Beary said.

So do we expect Bangalore to become India’s New York? Given that the builders are upbeat about recreating a Petronas towers or perhaps Dubai’s Al Burj hotel in the city.

"People do compare our upcoming buildings with Petronas Twin Towers. But we don't want to compare them with any world-class building. We are going in for a 45-storey building, an IT park and a corporate tower next," Syed Beary said.

Bangalore's former chief minister S M Krishna had once said he wanted Bangalore to be like Singapore in terms of infrastructure and amenities. Today with sky scrappers kissing its skies, the city is on its way to realizing that dream.

Some other interesting projects from Bearys Group I don't think have been posted:

Bearys Global Research Triangle
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/8554/elevationrr6.jpg

----==--=--==----

Beary's Queens Necklace
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3448/elevationeb9.jpg

----==--=--==----

Bearys Golden Harvest
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5299/elevationby1.jpg

Thanks Naveen.

So when you say CBD, you mean there are other projects planned in the UB City vicinity?

Don't think so, atleast not as big as the UB City. My only worry regarding UB City is whether the surrounding roads (Vittal Mallya, Lavelle, St. Marks and Kasturba roads) will be able to handle the additional traffic. Except Kasturba Road (from Kanteerava Stadium-UB City junction to MG Road) and St. Marks Road (from SBI Regional HQ to MG Road), the roads are mostly 2 laned and one-way already. How will they accommodate all those extra vehicles to and from UB City? Maybe Mallya will upgrade those roads before occupation:)

Don't think so, atleast not as big as the UB City. My only worry regarding UB City is whether the surrounding roads (Vittal Mallya, Lavelle, St. Marks and Kasturba roads) will be able to handle the additional traffic. Except Kasturba Road (from Kanteerava Stadium-UB City junction to MG Road) and St. Marks Road (from SBI Regional HQ to MG Road), the roads are mostly 2 laned and one-way already. How will they accommodate all those extra vehicles to and from UB City? Maybe Mallya will upgrade those roads before occupation:)

Is there any space for that?

well they've got helipads no ;) :naughty:

not a chance of expanding roads, unless you dig out cubbon park and that is a big no no in b'lore.
metro has about 3 stations(Central College, Vidhana Soudha, Chinnaswamy Std)
in the vicinity. but all ~> 0.5 km.
like all CBDs ultimately b'lore will have to make this area ped friendly.

you see the 'planners' have big plans for b'lore CBD and if they had their say there would be no small retailers et al there vonly big big buildings.
cash pharmacy got acquired recently and something ought to come up there soon.

where UBC sits, the area is ultra cool.
across the street to the west, on kasturba road, is cubbon park. zero chance of anything ever obstructing views on this side. to the south and south west are all stadiums, indoor std, kanteerava std, kslta, and to the north is chinnaswamy stad.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/998/bmicphosurroadjunctionyr6.jpg


Smooth ride down Hosur Road soon

From TOI

New roads promise to make commuting on Hosur Road easier

The dedicated zone for IT, the Electronic City, is in the news since a couple of years, for a wrong reason. The traffic en route to Electronic City, i.e. Hosur Road is chaotic. Ask any commuter on this route on the status of traffic, and he fumes. Today, it takes almost one and half hours to reach Electronic City from the Silk Board junction in peak hours.

However, all is not bad. The under-construction road on stilts, PWD's project to develop an arterial road and Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise's (NICE) peripheral road are progressing, promising much relief for commuters on this stretch. As the four-lane Hosur Road is the only approach road to Electronic City, traffic from all over the city converges at the Silk Board junction to move ahead.

These projects will reduce the pressure on Hosur Road once through. The elevated road will take traffic moving towards Electronic City from the Silk Board junction. The PWD developed road will bring connectivity between Whitefield and Sarjapur Road, and Electronic City. NICE's peripheral road will connect Mysore Road, Kanakapura Road and Bannerghatta Road with Electronic City.

A recent traffic survey carried out to study the traffic density on Hosur Road reveals a whopping 1.20 lakh passenger car units (PCU) on a normal day. As many as 10,000 trucks and 10,000 buses pass through Bommanahalli every day.

Peripheral Road

It's a six-lane access-controlled super-way all the way between Tumkur Road and Hosur Road. The work on the 75-metre wide 41-km Peripheral Road connecting Bangalore-Pune Road (NH 4), Magadi Road, Mysore Road, Kanakapura Road, Bannergatta Road and Hosur Road (NH 7) is on. And the implementing authorities state that almost 85 percent of the road work is over except a railway over bridge near Tumkur Road and a 400-metre stretch near Gottigere (Bannerghatta Road).

This peripheral road will offload almost 50 percent of traffic from Hosur Road as people commuting to Electronic City from south and west of Bangalore can use it. The peripheral road doesn't have any stoppages, and is of six lanes with service roads all the way. The distance between Mysore Road and Hosur Road via The Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP) peripheral road is a mere 20 km.

Speaking on the project, NICE Managing Director Ashok Keny says, "the peripheral road between Mysore Road and Hosur Road is crucial as it easily takes the burden off Hosur Road. Apart from reducing the distance, the traffic volume will be distributed. This will benefit people commuting through the Silk Board junction, and from the south and west parts of the city, to the Electronic City. There is a hitch which has halted the opening of the road. The state government is holding up a small piece of land near Gottigere. This 400-metre stretch is not transferred to us because the government wants us build a bridge over the lake rather than taking the road along the lake. The government should sort out the issue and give us land as soon as possible as it benefits thousands of commuters". Once this stretch is opened, the traffic scene on Hosur Road will never be bad again.

Elevated road

The work on the ambitious nine-km elevated road from Hosur Road to Electronic City is being carried out round-the-clock. This project will make commuting to the knowledge hub a pleasure. Currently, the stilts are being put up on Hosur Road and the project will be completed within a maximum time span of 24 months. It will cost Rs 450 crores. This will be a four-lane 'superstructure' - one of its kind. It will start from Hosur Road at the Silk Board junction and go straight into the heart of Electronic City. For the benefit given to them, the IT firms in Electronic City will bear 33 percent of the construction costs, while the remaining will be shared between the Centre, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the State Government.

The project will also include four subways for the heavy pedestrian traffic to cross at Bommanahalli, Garvebhavipalya, Kudlu and Singasandra junctions. Hosur Road will not be dug up for the construction of the subways. A 'box-pushing' technology where the subway is tunneled in from the sides will be adopted.

Arterial roads

The Karnataka Public Works Department (KPWD) is carrying out a massive and comprehensive plan to develop some of the crucial arterial roads in the peripheral areas of the city. One sector that is going to benefit from the project is Hosur Road. Under the project, three corridors of roads - east, south, and west will be developed. And Hosur Road sector falls under east.
The eastern corridor will involve a cost of Rs 27.45 crores and cover upto 45 km and four roads. This corridor road starts from NH 7 (Hosur Road) and joins NH 4 via Sarjapur, Bommasandra, Varthur, Whitefield, and Kadugodi. The existing road network comprises singlelane, intermediate-lane and two-lane roads, and they are to be widened to two-lane for the entire stretch. This project will ensure connectivity between Whitefield, Sarjapur Road and Electronic City.

dada thanks for this report.
made my day.

1. the BMIC overpass span adjusted to account for NH expansion.

Which one of the 2 builders is better Mantri or Purva?Anyone know if there are any service apartments selling in Banglore?

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/09/stories/2006120922060100.htm
Bidadi township: 32 consortiums submit requests for qualification

BANGALORE: The development of Bidadi Integrated Township, one of the largest proposed townships in the country coming on an area of around 9,000 acres, has received requests for qualification from 32 consortiums of developers from India and abroad. Additional Commissioner of Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) N. Sriraman opened the documents of Request for Qualification (RFQ) here on Friday.

The estimated cost of developing the township of Bidadi, to be located 39 km from Bangalore, is Rs. 3,500 crore. The Indian companies that have submitted RFQs include Reliance Energy, Reliance Utilities, Reliance Ports and Terminals, Unitech, Nikhil Gandhi group, Gokuldas Imagers Infrastructure, Prestige Consortiums, Sri Ram Properties, and HUDCO.

There are 17 foreign companies among the 120 forming the consortiums participating in the bid. They include Springfield Land Corporation (Australia), Ambito Group (Spain), Jurong (Singapore), Africa-Israel Investment Ltd. (Israel), Shanghai Urban Construction Corporation (China) and others from Malaysia, the U.S. and United Arab Emirates.

The BMRDA is likely to issue Request for Proposals (RFPs) by the end of this month, and the selected companies will have two months to submit their proposals.

Mr. Sriraman told The Hindu that the developer would be identified after the second round of bidding, to be finalised by March next. Some bidders had asked for equity participation by the Government. "We have made it clear that the Government would not participate in the project," said Mr. Sriraman. A saturated real estate market abroad combined with the growing demand for housing in India, he said, had resulted in companies looking to developing countries such as India and China.

The BMRDA has identified a strategic area spread over around 9,000 acres for the Bidadi Integrated Township project. Areas in Byramangala, Bannigeri, Hosur, K.G. Gollarapalya, and Kanchugaranahalli Kaval villages of Bidadi Hobli in Ramanagaram taluk will be included.

Looks like the 40-storey Brigade Northstar won't be Bangalore's tallest for long. Bearys Group is planning a 45 storey residential tower and a commercial skyscraper!

Bangalore gets a slice of New York (http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bangalore-gets-a-slice-of-new-york/27160-7.html)
The video of the storey:
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/27160/bangaloregetsasliceofnewyork.html

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/764016.cms

guys i think we should start a karnataka economy thread or threads for the other cities of karnataka

i feel there's a lot of development going on all over the state

Leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, announced it will invest $1 billion in India over the next 10 years. This is twice as much as the European company originally promised to invest after the Indian government ordered 43 Airbus planes for state-owned Indian Airlines last year. The planned investments include an engineering facility and a pilot training school in the southern city of Bangalore.

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/12/11/airbus-to-invest-1-billion-in-india/

guys i think we should start a karnataka economy thread or threads for the other cities of karnataka

i feel there's a lot of development going on all over the state

Go ahead and start one.

With a view to augment its market in emerging India, Nokia, the world's largest handset manufacturer, will start a design facility in Bangalore. Officials also said India is expected to become the company's second largest market by 2010.

"Nokia intends to start two new design facilities – one in Rio de Janerio (Brazil) and another one in Bangalore. It is important for us to be closer to the market and get feedback from our customer," Mitti Storckovius, director, corporate strategy, Nokia, said.

http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu9&subLeft=2&autono=267620&tab=r

Prestige inaugurates 4 projects in B`lore (http://business-standard.com/economy/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=267694&subLeft=1&leftnm=3)

The Prestige Group has inaugurated four mega projects in Bangalore including Prestige Tech Park on the Sarjapur-Marathahalli Road, Prestige Featherlite Tech Park in Whitefield, Prestige Palms and Prestige Ozone, both in Whitefield.

The company also announced the completion of the Angsana Spa project, Inventure Academy, the HP Campus in Whitefield and the Prestige Samudra Darshan in Goa.

According to the company, Prestige Ozone is a residential project covering an area of 46 acres and has two separate entrances, on the North and the West side. The project will have 281 villas of three bedroom and four bedroom, with about 75 per cent open landscaped green space.

The Prestige Palms in Whitefield has a Mediterranean architecture and is spread over 4.5 acres. The project will have 256 units of two-three bedroom houses with almost 60 per cent open green space.

The Prestige Tech Park is a commercial project on the Sarjapur-Marathahalli Outer Ring Road. Spread over 16 acres, the project houses companies like JP Morgan, Nokia, Magma Design Automation, Madura Coats, Bharti Tele Ventures.

Prestige Featherlite Tech Park spread over 1.20 acres of land and houses software and BPO companies. The building features flat slab structural system with a structural grid of 10.8 x10.8m so as to accommodate maximum number of work cubicles without any constraints.

Shantiniketan (Prestige constructions update)

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1968/prestigeconsshantilb5.jpg

Render

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/5783/prestigeshantiniketan5qz0.jpg

Mantri Greens

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6065/mantrigreensblrun6.jpg

Brigade Metropolis

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8827/brigademetropolisgb7.jpg

North Star (30 storey and claims to be tallest in Blr under construction) has reached third floor. It is part of the Brigade Gateway complex.

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/4015/blrgatewaybrigadecf1.jpg

HM World City

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1061/hmworldcityblrbx9.jpg

Great going Bangalore...Nice work Sun:)

A followup on Babji's post about this...

60,000 acres, 5 townships
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/18521.html

It’s being pitched by the Karnataka government as the project that will put Bangalore in the global league - a cluster of five privately built satellite townships spread over a total of 60,691acres around Bangalore.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is personally pitching for the estimated Rs 30,000-crore townships project, has sent out the message that the government will not allow any obstacle to stall the project or allow it to go the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor way.

The first township is to be created on 9684 acres, including 6969 acres of private land, in Kumaraswamy’s Ramanagaram constituency.

While the Karnataka government will acquire land for the project, the private consortia picked to implement and own the properties will create the “economic-residential” township from scratch, providing every amenity from power to connectivity.

In terms of scale it is one of the biggest township projects in India,’’ says N Sriraman, additional commissioner at the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the nodal government agency for the project.

“The project is expected to offer the comforts and facilities available in Bangalore — minus the congestion, traffic, in a serene atmosphere, ‘’ says a planning official in the state urban development department.

Shanghai Urban Construction Corporation and Singapore’s Jurong Construction Company are among the 32 consortia vying for a place on the shortlist of bidders for the first of the townships due to be announced on December 15.

Meanwhile, a local farmers’ protection group has alleged that the land acquisition for the first township at Bidadi, around 39 km from Bangalore, will kill the livelihood of around 25,000 members of the farming community in the region.

“What is the point of creating a mini America here at the cost of the local farmers who know no other way of life?’’ H T Lingappa, president of the Sri Ranganatha Raitha Hitarakshana Sangha, a forum of farmers, said this week while threatening to launch protests against land acquisition for the project. He alleges that land being acquired includes traditional belts of coconut, mango, sugarcane and vegetables. BMRDA officials say no land loser will be forced to relocate beyond the township. They will be paid compensation at market rates and integrated into the mainstream of economic activities in the township.

The BMRDA-Bidadi township project is also being called a replica of the township project proposed in the same region by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise under the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project that has been opposed by Kumaraswamy and his father former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

“The BMRDA township project applies the same principles as the NICE project. When one project is already approved, what is the need for another township in the same region,’’ asks the managing director of NICE Ashok Kheny.

well, that is true, the NICE township in Bidadi and the proposed new state town and the xisting town are all abutting.
and already there are some serious noises from bidadi about relocation.

i will news reports and post by evening.

I wonder how much money these township developers fed to the Gowda clan?

NICE was a better, more important project hands down and these monkeys are still not letting it happen. I am sure they weren't paid well for it, thats why they hate the project developer as well.

When it comes to infrastructure, thats exactly how it works. Be it defense procurement, SEZ's, and everything in between.

Bidadi, another Singur in the making?
Deccan Herald

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s assurance to investors notwithstanding, the Bidadi Township project seems headed for trouble over land acquisitions.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s assurance to investors notwithstanding, the Bidadi Township project seems headed for trouble over land acquisitions.

Farmers under the banner of Sri Ranganatha Raithara Hritharakshana Sangha have vowed to resist all efforts by the government to acquire farmlands and questioned the very need for the township itself.

Farmers even allege that the acquisition process is selective. About 100 acres belonging to Mr Kumaraswamy himself is being ‘protected’ while vast tracts adjacent to it are acquired, they say.


At a press meet on Monday, Sangha representatives noted that the project would affect the livelihood of farmers across some 27 villages. They took particular objection to the proposed acquisition of 10,000 acres of land in Byramangala and Kanchugaranahalli gram panchayats.

They noted that they had ‘sent back’ government-deputed surveyors recently and “we’d do the same in future too”.

The Bidadi Township project is the first among the five townships planned by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, for which a global tender process was initiated recently.

CM’s ‘interests’

Sangha secretary and taluk panchayat member H C Rajanna pointed out that “these areas are traditional belts of coconut, mango, sugarcane, other commercial crops and vegetables” and that the township concept put the lives of about 25,000 farmers at stake. “What will happen to these farmers and their families if their livelihood is taken away?” he asked.

“In Ramanagaram (the constituency of Mr Kumaraswamy), much is expected of the CM in terms of protecting farmers and their rights,” he said while expressing the fear that the township project will benefit only the rich and not the poor farmers.

The Sangha has threatened to an agitation, rallies and road blockades included, in Ramanagaram and Bangalore if the government doesn’t take on board its concerns.

ITC Gardenia Hotel
pic from http://www.rkaindia.com/

http://img334.imageshack.us/img334/4281/itcgardeniabangalorexj4.jpg

Transport hub to be a reality in 2007?
Vijay Times

The dream of Bangalore having one of the largest and most modern transport hub in Asia at Majestic (Subash Nagar Bus Terminus) could be reality next year as state owned, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is in the process of selecting one among five consortia who had submitted their tender bids soon.

Conceptualised as a futuristic dream project of KSRTC, the idea behind the project is to integrate bus, metro and train services under one roof and create world class transport infrastructure for the City.

Estimated to cost between Rs 700 to 1000 crore, KSRTC received responses from over 25 consortia which submitted their expression of interest in developing the project on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis. The bidders were selected after global tenders for pre-qualification procedure inviting Expressions of Interest were called for.

The selected construction groups involving global construction majors such as Reliance, Zurong, Siemens and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) have already submitted the conceptual design of the project.

A P Joshi, managing director, KSRTC told , that announcement of a bidder is in its final stages. "An outcome on the project could be expected in about two months" Joshi said.

The project construction would coincide with that of the Metro Rail project in March/April 2007 says Jagadeesh Chandra, chief civil engineer, KSRTC.

Authorities have already held discussions with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) as well Indian Railways to co-ordinate the plan as the mega project will house all the three modes of transport.

Major construction conglomerates such as Jurong from Singapore, Larsen and Toubro, Mantri Developers, H M S Construction, Shirke Construction, Prestige Group, Gammon India, Soma Construction and Classic Group among others had initially taken the bid documents.

The re-modelled bus terminus is planned to be buil istic landmark of the City with a multi-storey tow of commercial space, underground bus terminus, par ities for 5,000 cars and 10,000 two-wheelers, tunn for the pedestrian, a terrace helipad, star hotels atre, shopping centres, food courts, browsing rooms and other public utilities.

Redline (?) bus
photo copyright yawhatever

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/5582/bangaloreredbusyawhatevwf4.jpg

^^ Sun, do you mean the red volvo? Yes, it is:)

See this, you can see the yellow hand grips as well as the seats.

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6948/dsc00305ro4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/12/22/stories/2006122206380100.htm
Volvo shifting Europe truck work to India
To set up bus manufacturing plant near Bangalore
Bangalore , Dec. 21

Volvo will shift some of the truck manufacturing work from Europe to India and build its bus manufacturing plant near Bangalore. The Volvo India's Managing Director, Mr Eric Leblanc, told presspersons at the company's plant at Hoskote near here that during the course of the next year, some of the manufacturing work from plants in Sweden and Belgium will be shifted here. In turn, these plants will focus more on supplying trucks to the European countries. Due to capacity constraints in Asian plants, some of the demand is met from the plants in Europe.

Mr Leblanc said over a period of time, the Indian plant will double the production capacity to around 2,400 units per year to meet the demand from Asian countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. Exports to China, where Volvo already has a joint venture, will be undertaken at later..

The Indian plant already exports trucks to South Korea and Bangladesh. Mr Leblanc said no additional investment was required for doubling the capacity of the existing plant. Currently, nearly 4,000 Volvo trucks are sold in Asia.

He said Volvo will also hire more workers from the existing 150 blue-collar workers while the work shift will be increased to two. The R&D work done out of India will also be raised with the addition of 100 more engineers, while the software development work will be increased to 500 consultants.

The bus manufacturing plant will also be set up near the existing plant at Hoskote and will start operations from 2008. It will have a capacity to manufacture 1,000 bus bodies a year.
The bus manufacturing business will be a joint venture with Jaico Automobiles, with Volvo holding 70 per cent in the venture.

Conceptualised as a futuristic dream project of KSRTC, the idea behind the project is to integrate bus, metro and train services under one roof and create world class transport infrastructure for the City.


Bangalore and KSRTC are truly leading the way when it comes to public transportation planning for the city/state. Most of Indian cities stil haven't realised the eed for an integrated approach to handling public transport. Hope this plan suceeds so that the other metros will atleast wake up to this model.. hopefully in the near future.

Transport hub ...
...The re-modelled bus terminus is planned to be buil istic landmark of the City with a multi-storey tow of commercial space, underground bus terminus, par ities for 5,000 cars and 10,000 two-wheelers, tunn for the pedestrian, a terrace helipad, star hotels atre, shopping centres, food courts, browsing rooms and other public utilities.
very exciting. this could become a roll model for other metros to follow.

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Embassy Group Proposed Residential Project (Embassy Zenith?), Bangalore:
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3241/projimgdfr01b79e726gx8.jpg
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3342/projimgdfr01rightb79eebpa7.png

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Hebbal flyover
http://i16.tinypic.com/2i0tber.jpg

Finally, IMTEX (http://www.imtex.in) comes home to B'lore- the heart of India's machine tools industry. Thanks to the brand new exhibition center of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA) that is ready to host its first IMTEX between Jan 18 and Jan 24 2007. Also of significance is the claim that it is a green center.

Though it will primarily host the IMTEX exhibitions it will also be open to other events.


The facility is named as the “IMTMA - Naoroji Pirojsha Godrej International Exhibition & Conference Centre” after the late Mr. N. P. Godrej, a Past President of the Association. He first mooted the idea for such a Centre, which would not only house the Association’s highly-acclaimed international machine tool exhibition – IMTEX and other IMTMA-organised events but would also be available to the Indian industry for scheduling international events.

http://www.imtex.in/pic/exhi.jpg
More info about the venue in this brochure. (http://www.imtex.in/biec_brochure.pdf)

The main city railway station is set for upgradation. Some of these plans have been on anvil for a while and the railways and the local authorities have been squabbling about who does what. looks like they have sorted things out. in any case in the next 3-4 years this might come to fruition.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/05/images/2007010525060301.jpg

City railway station all set for facelift

Anil Kumar Sastry

Rs. 1 crore released to appoint consultant for lending it a world-class look.

BANGALORE: Separate arrival and departure lounges, shopping malls, escalators, ticketed entry to platforms, food courts, automatic ticketing system and a hi-tech electronic queue management system for passengers. This is not the description of the international airport coming up at Devanahalli, but of the soon-to-be-renovated Bangalore City Railway Station.

The Railway Board has released Rs. 1 crore to the South Western Railway (SWR) to appoint a consultant for upgrading the station to meet international standards.

At present, the railway station handles 71 pairs of trains, and more than 1.5 lakh passengers make use of the station premises each day.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had recently announced that Bangalore, along with 15 other major railway stations in the country, will be upgraded to world-class standards.

Tenders

Mahesh Mangal, Divisional Railway Manager, SWR, Bangalore, told The Hindu on Thursday that tenders would soon be floated to select the consultant to prepare a master plan for the purpose that would also involve integration of railway services with the proposed metro rail and the existing bus services.

While the existing main entry facing the Kempe Gowda Bus Station would be revamped, the second entry from Rajajinagar side would have an exclusive terminal with all passenger amenities, Mr. Mangal said.

The terminal buildings comprising three floors, including the ground floor, would have the potential for further additions.

Food courts

The ground floor would exclusively be meant for passenger concourse, while the first floor would house reservation counters, toilets and food courts. The third floor would have rest rooms and railway offices, he said.

Apart from refurbishing the second entry, the SWR intended to open another entry to the station from Magadi Road (between Binny Mill and Old Mysore Road Junction), Mr. Mangal said.

It would considerably ease congestion at the main and second entries and help passengers from south and west Bangalore to easily access the station, he said.

Land

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has agreed to hand over around 6,000 sq.m. of land, which was previously held by an oil company, to the Railways.

The consultant is also to suggest commercial utilisation of Railway property.

On a related note
Second entry to be upgraded

Anil Kumar Sastry

BMP, Railways will finalise agreement in this regard The Rs. 80-crore project envisages underground roads and multi-level flyovers around Okalipuram

BANGALORE: The long wait for upgradation of the second entry to the city railway station seems to be over. Commuters will soon be able to enjoy a smooth and congestion-free entry and exit at the station.

The drive through Fountain Circle, Okalipuram Junction, Sriramapura Junction and Old Mysore Road Junction will be free of traffic signals and the distance between Majestic and Rajajinagar will also be reduced.

This will happen once Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) and the Railway authorities will finalise an agreement to start construction that promises to make access to the station easy and clear bottlenecks around it.

The project envisages a combination of underground roads and multi-level flyovers around Okalipuram. The Railways has agreed to the project details submitted by BMP.

The core of the new project, estimated to cost around Rs. 80 crore, is upgradation of the existing entry between platforms 7 and 8. The project utilises Railway land to cut across the existing bottlenecks between Rajajinagar entrance and Fountain Circle (Khoday's Junction) in Majestic area.

An eight-lane road from Fountain Circle will pass under the Railway Over Bridge (Chennai line), enter a tunnel and resurface near the Sriramapura junction on Sujatha Talkies Road.

Two multi-level parking bays will be built at the new terminal.

Provision for bus bays will be made on either side of the new road near Sriramapura Junction and foot overbridges will connect these bays to the railway station. A similar foot overbridge is planned from Kempe Gowda Bus Stand to the railway station. Vehicles from Rajajinagar towards the railway station will take the existing Sujatha Talkies Road, pass through Okalipuram Junction and take an up-ramp to enter the station.

Vehicles from Malleswaram side will take an up-ramp and proceed on a flyover, while those from Shanthala will take a left turn at Fountain Circle and take an up-ramp and a flyover to enter the station.

Differences between the Railways and the BMP over sharing of costs delayed the project. The Railways insisted the BMP should bear the entire cost as it was offering 13,000 sq.m. of its land and the BMP said the Ra"ilways should share the cost.

Rapid progress on Route 17

The four-lane State highway has reduced the travel time and is bringing in business opportunity
The Times of India Jan 5th 2007


When Chief Minister H D Ku m a r a swamy dedicated the Rs 330 crore four-lane Bangalore-Mysore highway, and launched work on six-laning the Mysore-Srirangapatna stretch on September 1 last year, commuters had reason to cheer. The 140-km stretch, which had been upgraded into a four-lane highway, would now ensure a hasslefree, smooth ride for them in just two hours. The four-laning of this State Highway 17 has brought together the cities of Bangalore and Mysore like never before.
Bangalore-Mysore Road is an important State highway in the state connecting the State capital with cultural city of Mysore. Large volume of tourist traffic plies on this road. The road not only connects the State capital to the cultural capital, it also takes commuters to Ooty, Coorg and Kerala.
The work on this project was completed on June 30, 2006 itself, though the official inauguration took place in September.

Boon to industry
With the entire 140-km length now functional, there has been lot of development along the route, and also in Mysore. While a number of resorts and restaurants have sprung-up along the picturesque highway, the reduction in travel time has sparked off positive and interesting developments for Mysore.
A fast-burgeoning tier-II city, Mysore, is witnessing the arrival of many IT and BPO companies. The real estate market has spiraled, resulting in a boom in the property, especially those lands closer to the highway. Major hotel chains have started looking for land to set-up hotels to cater to the tourist flow. The retail industry too has seen unprecedented growth, owing to the shrinking of travel time between the two cities.
Various industries have benefited from this development. The hospitality industry in particular has gained much from the improvement in connectivity. "The four-lane road has improved connectivity. With the road now in place, tourists need not depend on the public transport and can use their own conveyance which will help them to go around locally too. Tourist influx has increased from 5-10 percent," says Devender Awasthi, General Manager, Hotel Royal Orchid Metropole.

Bottlenecks being cleared
Though the travel time is a little under two hours, it can be further reduced to one and a half hours, if the bypass roads in the towns of Ramanagar, Channapatna and Mandya become a reality. According to the Karnataka State Road Development Corporation, the work on the bypass road in Mandya will commence soon.
Also, the route passes through many villages and vehicles often enter the highway from the wrong direction, coming in the way of speeding motorists.

Plans
Work on upgrading the Srirangapatna-Mysore stretch of the highway into a six-lane road will commence at a cost of Rs 23 crore. It is expected to be completed in 12 months. Karnataka State Road Development Corporation has approved the project to upgrade the Mysore-Bangalore Road into a six-lane highway. The Government has identified the land required for widening the road into a six-lane highway.
According to Karnataka State Road Development Corporation Executive Engineer Shankare Gowda, the fourlane highway has been designed according to Indian Road Congress (IRC) specifications, and has been constructed, keeping in mind a speed limit of 80-100 km. However, most of the 50,000 odd vehicles that traverse on this stretch everyday, exceed this speed limit, resulting in accidents. Though the traffic police have ensured adequate highway patroling, common road sense and adherance to traffic rules and speed limits will go a long way in ensuring that the highway is used well.

Corridor to knowledge and development

The Bangalore-Mysore expressway project promises to be a knowledge hub
The Times of India Jan 7th 2007

The Bangalore-Mysore expressway is more than just a road to Mysore. It has the elements of a 'knowledge corridor' that converts the road into a belt of commercial development and opportunity. As part of the facilities planned along the route are civic infrastructure and business facilities. These hold promise of development potential in the region.
A state-of-the-art convention facility, being put up by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association as part of the expressway project, called the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, may soon become a landmark in the city. It promises to turn into a destination for international conferences, theatre festivals, film festivals, art shows and auto shows. Such facilities, capable of holding global meets, draw tourists and entrepreneurs to the region. The Cannes Film Festival and the Hanouver Fair receive worldwide attention and have become destinations. This facility too may well be on its way to becoming a global destination, creating a 'knowledge hub' in the region.
The facility comprising three large halls can accommodate 40,000 square metres of exhibition space. The entire area has no pillars, thereby, providing tremendous flexibility to exhibition organisers in laying out their stalls and exhibits. Under-the-floor ducting for power, water, compressed air and telecommunication networks will facilitate easy and smooth movement across the exhibition space. The floor will also have a loadbearing capacity of 30 tonnes per square metre, which will be sufficient to accommodate very heavy exhibits like large machine tools, earth moving equipment, textile machinery and big compressors.
Says Ashok Kheny, MD, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises, "Bangalore being an attractive city, this exhibition center if combined with tourism will give a boost to the industry. Delegates often come for conferences accompanied by their spouses, and this aspect can be effectively used to promote tourism."
The exhibition halls will be air-cooled by energy-consuming cooling technology. An arched roof gives a spacious and environment-freshness feeling to exhibitors and visitors.
Every hall has been provisioned with a management office for use by exhibition organisers as well as an exclusive protocol lounge to accommodate VIP visitors. The main food court is in close proximity to the exhibition halls - to service the needs of a large volume of visitors and exhibitors at any given point of time.
The complex is enabled with latest gadgetry for modern-day conferencing and business-to-business events. It also has adequate space for registration facilities, holding concurrent exhibitions as well as for other support facilities including exclusive areas for meals and for enabling one-to-one discussions.
"There is a need for such a campus," says Senior Facilities Manager of Novell Software, S Hemkumar. "I remember attending a conference in a Convention Centre in Los Angeles which had a filming area, photo galleria, information center, and a downtown area for entertainment in the evening. I hope this one too has similar facilities, with specific areas for training, education and different sizes of meeting rooms."

Training centre
This centre encompasses a hi-tech computer lab connected with 50 work-stations. It also includes small halls for holding technical seminars and workshops. It will also house the IMTMA Design Institute - the country's first private institution for training young engineers on the latest in design skills as well as the proposed IMTMA Productivity Training Centre.
Corporates in the city are finding it increasingly necessary for a convention center of this magnitude in the IT city. With many of the employees here having experienced world-class convention centers in foreign countries, they hope that such a facility becomes a reality soon.
According to Mysore-based pediatrician and founder of Asha Kirana Hospital Dr S N Mothi, a center of this magnitude will certainly bring in a lot of visibility for Mysore. "It is not possible to hold a national level meet comprising 7,000-8,000 delegates as of now, but if such a facility comes up in the vicinity of the center along with accommodation and other back-ups, it will be a boon," he says.

Potential for real estate
This facility also brings another dimension with it. The real estate sector will find it another catalyst in its already booming graph. The need for ancillary support segments around this facility is bound to be create a market for property in the vicinity. This apart, the service sector such as hotels and retail will find the visitors a potential market to cater to. Housing too will see some gains, with the facility leading to demand for housing, from the economic activity it entails.

Karnataka to develop SEZ for aerospace industry (http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200701090310.htm)


After witnessing an IT boom, Karnataka is keen on developing aerospace industry in a big way through a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

A proposal for creating an aerospace and aircraft components manufacturing cluster at Devanahalli for maintenance, operation and servicing of aircrafts would be sent to the Centre in a couple of days, Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu told reporters.

Observing that Bangalore was the "natural destination" for the development of the aerospace industry, he said many airlines like Lufthansa and major players have shown interest because of the unprecedented growth in the aviation sector in the country.

He said that Devanahalli near Bangalore was suited for the project and already several organisations like the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Space Research Organistion and Hindustan Aeronautical Limited were functioning there.

"We propose to acquire nearly 900 acres for which preliminary notification has already been issued," he said.

Dear Infoscion,
January 2007

There's good news on the anvil as the Hosur Elevated road project is on target. The BETL Consortium along with the National Highway Authorities of India have been working round-the-clock to make available the service roads on Hosur Road for smoother movement of traffic. Now, except for one section of the service road (close to the Begur junction) the rest of the service roads on the stretch from Silk Board to E-City are in various stages of completion. These should be ready and available for use in the next fortnight.

PWD Projects received the required fillip
We have prioritized 8 PWD roads of the 45 earmarked for improvement in the first phase (this was communicated to you in the previous update). These include :

Some important roads like the Attibele – Varthur Road for permanent diversion of HTV
Peripheral road from Hosur Road to Sarjapur Road – off Jail junction
Jigani road to connect to Banerghatta Road among others
Significant improvement of roads by March
An important landmark in this endeavour was the joint inspection of these roads by a joint committee of Working Women; ELCIA; IT Secretary; PWD and others and the setting down of milestones to track the projects. We are happy to report these projects are on track. By 31 March, 2007 there should be significant improvements to report, on these roads.

You would have noticed improved movement of traffic on Hosur Road and this is thanks to the tireless efforts of the Traffic Wardens of ELCIA and the Madiwala Police. They have deployed more personnel on the road and have instituted many creative and simple solutions like moving bus stops away from crossings; restricting U-turns on the stretch to specific junctions to ensure speedy and smoother movement of traffic.

The Sarjapur Road widening and improvement has also come under the World Bank project and has been prioritized as the first project requiring completion. Work has already started there. Commuters on that road will see a lot of improvement in the days to come.
Improvement of Madiwala market area
The next steps include improvement to Madiwala market area to allow for free flow of traffic and opening up the Hosur Road stretch from St Johns to Silk Board for 2 way traffic. A divider will be constructed from the Silk Board junction to the Ayyappa temple junction on Hosur Road and the 2-way traffic will be made possible for 2/3 and 4 wheelers (cars)

Our focus has shifted to helping commuters through the BTM and HSR areas onto Hosur Road. The traffic situation in these areas has become impossible to handle in recent times. We have done a study with BMP and others on possible solutions which include the construction of metal ramps on either side of the flyover at Silk Board junction. Metal ramps are also being planned at 2 specific junctions in BTM layout to ease the flow of traffic. This plan is in the initial stages and the next update will have more information about the same.

A quick solution to the problem above would be the opening up of the BMIC road (Nandi Road) from Hosur Road to Banerghatta Road and Kanakapura Road. The road is 98% complete and it is our endeavour to make it available for commuters in the next fortnight. Towards this, we have several meetings scheduled with the CM and his team over the next few days.

We have also focused on building a large support group among companies in E-City and Hosur Road in order to give us the opportunity to mobilize action as and when required.

Thank you for your continued support. We will reach out to you for any help required in appealing to the Government for speedy action in public interest.

With regards,
Aruna Newton
Rama N. S.
Mohandas Pai

Vantage,
many many thanks for sharing this.

as of today, i believe, some parts of widened hsr rd is already open to traffic.
much smoother traffic people were saying.

I have read many articles on the NH7 (silk brd to ecity) part. Here are a couple of finer nuances that i too noticed about it:

1) The Elevated expressway will have a toll of Rs 25 one way for cars (4 wheelers ,LTVs) and Rs 10 for motorcyles (or 2 wheelers) using the elevated section of the road.

2) The vehicles which donot use the elevated section neednot pay any toll unless they would want to go all the way to Hosur (Tamil nadu) in which case the toll is Rs 10.

3) Earlier the plan was to have 3 pedestrian underpasses , but now its been increased to 4. This is my analysis- The places are most probably : Bommanahalli, kudlu, Hosa road junction and Ecity junction.

4) The highway is of the configuration 5 lanes(at ground level) + 2 lanes (elevated)on one side making it to a total of 14 lanes. The 5 lanes (at gnd level) is divided as :
3+2 ; wherein 3 is the actual (or existing) road and 2 lanes are for services road.

The whole project's deadline is july'08, which seems achievable because of the 3 private groups involved in constructing this. This was all about the construction contract, regarding the ownership and funds - That's shared by three parties :
- State govt
- Nhai
- Electronics city companies.

5) The good news doesnot stop at this :
NHAI has announced that they have another expressway project on the hosur road. Guess where! It starts from where this project ends near electronics city and goes upto the TN border. It 'll be a 6 Lane project with 5 underpasses.

History lesson -
If you have been following the blr s road networks progress , you might be knowing that there was an earlier plan of connecting MG road with the Electronics city via an expressway. It was to be done with three flyovers - one from ecity to silk board , 2nd from silk board to koramangla, and third from kormangala to mg road. Due to prev govt's laziness , Only 1 flyover is now seeing daylight , others have got buried in thier files.

I would appreciate people who come to know and more about BETL , express them here.

Cheers and have a nice day ahead.

hey man thanks for those points. meanwhile it looks like they are going to make ORR grade separated for eventually.

More flyovers for city
Some new ones have been planned
The Times of India

With traffic snarls everywhere and people talking about crumbling infrastructure in Bangalore, there can be some sense of relief that several projects taken up by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) last year, have reached completion. There are some new projects on the anvil too.
Projects on the anvil
The city is likely to get several new flyovers in the near future. A flyover is proposed to be built at the junction of Outer Ring Road and Magadi Road at a cost of Rs 35 crores. Another flyover is likely to come up at the Agara and Outer Ring Road junction, costing Rs 40 crores. There is also a proposal to construct a flyover at the Iblur and Outer Ring Road junction, costing Rs 30 crores.

The Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project of a length of 117 km has been taken up by the BDA at a cost of Rs 3,600 crores to enhance smooth flow of traffic in the peripheral areas. This will be a 100 metre wide 8-lane road including service roads on either side.

The much talked about IT industry can also heave some sigh of relief as an 8.5 km stretch along the Hi-tech City corridor connecting Outer Ring Road to Electronic city has been taken up at a cost of Rs 140 crores.
Ongoing projects

The BDA has taken up road works on the Outer Ring Road that is likely to cut short the journey by 13 km, for commuters from Magadi Road to Mysore Road via Kengeri.

Road improvement work from the HAL corporate office to Kundalahalli is also in progress. The Railway Over Bridge work is taken up at Marathahalli by the Railways. Both the Railway Over Bridge and approach road works will be completed by January 2007.

The much-awaited grade separator at Airport Road and IRR junction was taken up at a cost of Rs 34.9 crore. Although this was opened to traffic, one loop remains to be completed as it has encountered some hitches.

Two new under passes have been taken up at the busiest junctions of the city, one at the Outer Ring Road-Ramamurthyagar junction and the other at the junction of Magadi Road and Chord Road. The scheduled date of completion of this bi-directional 60 metre long underpass project on the Outer Ring Road and Ramamurthynagar junction is June 2007. The 530 metre long underpass with a four line divided carriage way at the Magadi Road-Chord Road junction is scheduled to be completed by June 2007.
According to BDA sources, several CMC roads like the Byatarayanapura and Bommanahalli roads are to be completed by March 2007.

These part from other ORR grade separation projects announced.
I hope first phase of BDA-PRR is on the I quadrant or better yet I&II quadrants. i.e., between hosur rd and bellary road or between hosur rd and tumkur road via bellary road.

Hosur Road Expressway:Racing against the deadline

Almost all the way down Hosur Road — from the Silk Board junction to Electronics City — you can see feverish activity. Along many stretches, pre-fabricated concrete block drains have been fitted and covered, and in other stretches, it’s in the process of being done. Where the drain work is over, the main road has been asphalted up to the drain. The service roads too have been improved in a number of locations and there’s a lot of traffic flow on these roads.
Wherever the main roads have been broadened, work on the pillars for the elevated expressway has started.
Along several long stretches, the median has been cordoned off and you can see tall piling rigs at work. A National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said some 70 piles (foundations for pillars) have been done.
“Our first milestone is January and I expect we will meet all the targets fixed,” the official said. All the three construction companies involved — Soma, Maytas and Nagarjuna — are pretty much on target. An overhead launching gantry to fix the pre-fabricated roads on to the pillars, is being fabricated in China and will reach Bangalore this month.
However, the official expressed regret that there was no visible progress in the effort to properly asphalt the road connecting Attibele and Bommasandra to Sarjapur Road, which would help divert heavy vehicles away from Hosur Road. This road is the PWD’s responsibility.
STATUS REPORT
Service roads: Of the 10 km to be done, 4.1 km completed and opened to traffic. Remaining expected to be over this month
Erection of drains: 13 km over. The remaining 7 km was to be fully done by this month, but may spill over to February.
Six-laning of main road: 7.5 km done. 10 km more to be completed. Expected to be over by this month.
Elevated expressway: 70 piles (foundations for pillars) done. The total is over 2,000.


BMIC:In deep water over lake

When everything appears to be going well for the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project (BMIC) in terms of the peripheral road, the Gottigere Lake issue is hindering further development of the
road connecting Bannerghatta and Kanakapura peripheral road. In view of the environmental aspect, BMIC promoters NICE prepared a blueprint to align the road, instead of constructing pillars over Gottigere Lake.
The government, in violation of the SC interim stay, asked NICE on November 4 to put up pillars on the lake. But NICE chose to comply with the SC directive and went in for alignment. The HC, while dismissing the government’s plea, said: “The respondents are directed not to lay any road bisecting the Gottigere tank, preventing or disturbing inflow of water into the tank.’’
NICE said it’s unable to lay road on pillars citing that density and width of the concrete pillars would destroy two-thirds of the lake. “Our contention has been upheld by IISc, which in its study, states that the only viable alternative to the road is to align, instead of constructing pillars.’’


BIAL: BIAL picks partners

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has made substantial efforts in ensuring that professional concessionaires for various services come on board and on time. After an extensive technical and financial evaluation, BIAL has selected the following service-providing partners:

Aviation fuel facility: Consortia of Skytanking and Indian Oil will build and operate the fuel farm and hydrant system of the airport on an open access basis. This means any qualified supplier of aviation turbine fuel can supply fuel and process it through the common facility against a non-discriminatory and competitive charge

Cargo facility: Consortia of Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS)/Air India and Bobba Group/Menzies Aviation will build and operate two general cargo for both warehouses for domestic and international cargo. The combined area for both warehouses is 15 acres with an initial capacity to handle nearly 3 lakh tonnes of cargo per year. Ground handling: Consortia of GlobeGround India and Air India/SATS will be responsible for providing ground-handling services and for procuring equipment required for operation at the new international airport.

Retail and duty-free: Nuance/Shoppers’ Stop have been selected for retail and duty-free shops in the international departure section and Shoppers’ Stop has been selected for the retail package in domestic departure section. Food and beverage: HMS Host Corporation, a leader in airport dining and shopping innovations, has been asked to operate the food and beverage service in domestic and international departure points.

Flight catering: LSG Sky chefs and Taj SATS.

Metro: Gets down to brass tracks at last!

The much-debated Metro Rail seems to be poised to finally move out of the confines of paper onto brass tracks. As of January 10, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) authorities had decided to award the viaduct construction tender contract to an agency.
The viaduct construction spells progress in the scheme of things. Explains V Madhu, MD, BMRC: “These are the elevated civic lines through which the tracks run. They start at MG Road and end at Byappanahalli. This lays down a solid groundwork for the Metro Rail work.’’
The tenders are slated to be awarded on January 19.
Meanwhile, the entire stretch of land across the east-west corridor, 10.95 acres, has been notified for acquisition under section 28(1) of the KIADB Act. Accordingly, notices have been issued and objections heard from land owners by the land acquisition officer. The final notification for lands in the stretch of Trinity Circle to Nala at SV Road as also Old Madras Road is slated to be issued by the government by the second week of January.
BMRC officials said Bangalore would follow standard gauge system despite pressure to adopt broad gauge system simply because in Bangalore, the building line was very close to the roads and that roads in the city were narrow with sharp ends.

It is a death trap for road-users
The Hindu
In 2006, there were eighty-one deaths due to accidents on Hosur Road


TOUGH TIME: Pedestrians find it difficult to cross the road because of heavy traffic. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

BANGALORE: Hosur Road, the city's IT artery, continues be a death trap for road-users. Of the 915 road accident deaths in 2006, 81 were reported from Hosur Road, which comes under the Madiwala Traffic Police Station limits.

The reasons for this are shocking, considering that the area has some of Bangalore's biggest corporate names.

According to the Madiwala Traffic Inspector H.T. Ramesh, the lack of streetlights on the stretch between Central Silk Board junction and Electronic City is the main cause for accidents, especially those involving pedestrians. Of the 81 dead, 46 were pedestrians.

The absence of protected pedestrian crossings on the busy six-lane road is another reason for this alarming fatality figure.

Pedestrians have removed the median on the road at many places.

Further, many liquor shops have come up on either side of the road and customers walk straight out of these watering holes onto the road.

Though movement of people is less during the night, 15 people were killed between 9 p.m. and midnight and nine between midnight and 6 a.m.

With no streetlights in place, the vision of vehicle drivers is blocked due to the headlights of vehicles coming from the opposite direction, he noted.

Over 600 of the total 915 road accident deaths occurred on national highways and Outer Ring Roads (ORRs) during 2006. Despite a decline in the total number of accidents between 2003 and 2006 (from 10,505 to 7,561), the number of fatal accidents has gone up from 843 to 880 in the same period.

Hosur Road is followed by the busy Tumkur Road (NH4). Peenya and Yeshwanthpura Traffic Police Stations under which Tumkur Road falls, recorded 72 and 39 deaths respectively. Krishnarajapura

Traffic Police Station under which the Old Madras Road falls recorded the next highest fatality figure with 67 deaths, followed by Byatarayanapura (65) on Mysore Road, Hebbal (34) and Yelahanka (42) on NH 7.

While Madiwala Traffic Police Station accounted for the highest number of accident deaths, Cubbon Park Traffic Police Station reported just one death during 2006.

Though it could be said that accidents seldom occur on Raj Bhavan Road, Queen's Road, Dr. Ambedkar Veedhi, Cubbon Road and Cunningham Road coming under Cubbon Park because of bumper-to-bumper traffic, these roads are relatively traffic-free during nights. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East) M.A. Saleem attributed the near accident-free record to introduction of one-ways and keeping traffic signal lights on even during nights.

"Because we have kept signal lights on during nights, the drivers were at least alert, if not followed the rules," he said.

Road-widening project still stuck on paper
BMP Says Defence Authorities, Residents Pose Huge Roadblocks
The Times of India

Bangalore: Apart from being New Year’s Eve, December 31 was the deadline for civic authorities to complete widening of 12 roads on priority. A deadline set by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy himself.
And the status: Work in progress, on paper.
Over two years after the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) was entrusted with the task of widening roads in Bangalore, not a single road has actually been widened. For instance, Hosur Road was the first stretch for the exercise. Thirty metres of land on either side were identified, compounds were fenced out and yet, the road remains in the same status. With the same traffic juggernaut.
Widening roads using the provisions of Transferable Development Scheme (TDR), was a scheme approved by the state government in January 2005. In the scheme, a person who gives up his/her property for civic works, gets additional floor area to a tune of 1.5 times of the acquired land. This will be given in the form of Development Rights Certificate, which he can sell to a property owner, who wants to upgrade the building or use it in his own property.
However, many meetings and issual of notices later, the scheme is still stuck with the same initial roadblocks. To start with, BMP officials explain that defence authorities posed the starting stumbling block by prolonging the approval process. A total of 44,464 sq mts of land belonging to the Defence was pending approval, a final nod is awaited still.
Engineers at the BMP explain that the task they face is an Herculean one — convincing people to part with land. “For a year we have been going road to road, identifying the specifics required and trying to convince people that the land required is for public good. We have explained the concept of TDR, but they are just not willing. They are demanding an alternate site with house or market compensation,” explain engineers associated with the project.
PROGESS THUS FAR
Topographical survey completed for 30 roads
Very few private property owners are accepting TDR forms and surrendering land for road widening
Road alignment for 12 roads has been approved and DPRs for 6 roads completed
Land cost for private properties in taken through land acquisition at present market rate for 12 roads amounts to Rs 266 crore

Machine tool park likely near Bangalore
Mahesh Kulkarni in Bangalore | January 15, 2007 11:00 IST

The domestic machine tool industry is poised for a quantum jump, thanks to the boom in the manufacturing sector.

However, the industry is faced with a huge demand-supply gap, particularly because of the inability of small and medium enterprises to scale up quickly.

To overcome this, the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association has mooted setting up a machine tool park near Bangalore at an investment of Rs 800-1,000 crore (Rs 8 to 10 billion).

The initiative is based on the recent recommendations of the committee on capital goods set up by the Union government jointly with the Confederation of Indian Industry.

As per the recommendations, the machine tool park will be set up with 40 per cent financial assistance from the government, while the remaining 60 per cent will be pooled by SMEs interested in setting up shops, said Mohanram, director - technology division, IMTMA.

As part of the industry-government venture, the park is proposed to be set up at a 200 acre plot at Dobbspet on Tumkur road near Bangalore.

It will provide assistance to over 100 SMEs to manufacture machine tools, accessories and electronic and mechanical items, and set up a design centre.

"It will be a one-stop-shop for the machine tool industry as a whole range of components and tools could be manufactured at the proposed park," Mohanram said.

IMTMA has already sent a proposal to the Union ministry of heavy industries seeking an industry grant of Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) for the park.

The proposal, which is currently with the Planning Commission for inclusion in the 11th Plan period starting 2007-08, is expected to take a firm shape in the next two months, Mohanram said.

The recommendations were discussed and accepted at a meeting recently held by the heavy industry ministry in New Delhi. IL&FS has been assigned the task of working out the detailed project report.

Shrinivas G Shirgurkar, managing director, Ace Designers, said, "It is necessary to establish a machine tool park as it helps small and medium vendors to put up their own production units. They can't do so on their own as land prices in and around Bangalore have hit the roof at Rs 6 crore (Rs 60 million) an acre."

"So, our association has come out with this move to set up a park which will provide common infrastructure to SMEs to put up their facilities."

The park will facilitate setting up of some specialised machine tool manufacturing units.
It has also been decided to provide a common centralised banking facility, design centre and marketing arrangements for the units at the proposed park.

Finally some action on this. Though as is the norm in all such things there are no dates mentioned.

Slums to become housing clusters
Bangalore,DHNS:
Four modern residential complexes will soon replace the 85 hutments in the Austin town slums (adjacent to Jasma Bhavan). A review meet of the pilot project – Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP), which was included in the the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for Bangalore City, was conducted by BMP Commissioner K Jairaj, on Wednesday.

The BSUP project will cover five slums including Kodihalli slum on Airport Road, Bhakti Garden slum near City market, Netaji slum in Malleswaram and Kalyani slum in Sampangiram Nagar.

The complexes will have ground plus three floors and each house will have a hall, kitchen, bedroom, toilet and bathroom. The area will have internal roads, water supply, drainage facilities and solar lighting. The estimated cost of each dwelling is Rs 2 lakh. The total cost of the project would be Rs 13.83 crore.

1383/2 ~ 690. around 600 houses i guess.

what happens to the remaining lands?

Bangalore has been pondering reorganization for a while. The powers that be decided that they would integrate the areas around it. The final notification is now out...


It’s official, Greater Bangalore is happening!
DH News Service Bangalore:
Governor T N Chaturvedi’s nod for the final notification on Greater Bangalore - an ambitious project of the JD (S)-BJP combine in the State, has put an end to all apprehensions if the project will ever take off.


Greater Bangalore has finally come into existence. Governor T N Chaturvedi’s nod for the final notification on Greater Bangalore - an ambitious project of the JD (S)-BJP combine in the State, has put an end to all apprehensions if the project will ever take off.

The Governor has cleared the notification after studying the suggestions filed by citizens, without any changes.

The State Cabinet approved Greater Bangalore proposal on September 13, 2006.

On November 2, the government invited objections from citizens. The final notification was issued on January 16, amalgamating seven CMCs, one TMC and 110 urbanised villages with the existing Bangalore city, which will, henceforth, be called Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

The seven City Municipal Councils (CMCs) and one Town Municipal Council (TMC) are: Rajarajeshwari, Dasarahalli, Bommanahalli, Krishnarajapuram, Mahadevapura, Byatarayanapura, Yelahanka (all CMCs) and Kengeri (TMC). This also means that Bangalore can now boast of 741 sq kms of area (BBMP limits) instead of the previous 225 sq kms (BMP area).

BBMP has been formed with an aim to improve and co-ordinate infrastructure development like roads, UGD, water supply and solid waste management, to improve the quality of civic services and strengthen administrative capacity.

No change as yet

However, the Government has not initiated any administrative changes in any of these urban local bodies. “We will shortly issue an order to officials of all CMCs and BMP to continue in their positions and discharge duties until further orders,” sources in Urban Development Department said.

The Government is planning to re-deploy all officials. This is likely to be done after enacting a separate legislation governing the administration of the newly formed BBMP.

The plan is to have eight zones in BBMP (including existing three of the previous BMP) for administrative purposes. In other words, the existing Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act will not be applicable for BBMP once the proposed legislation is enacted.

LEFT OUT

Vaderapura village of Yelahanka Gram Panchayat has been dropped from the final notification, much to the disappointment of the residents. Though no reason has been cited, the notification states that objections received against the draft notification issued in November last year, have been duly examined and considered.

The draft notification listed 111 urbanised villages to be merged with Bangalore city.

Bangalore's Autobahn
FORTUNE Magazine

(Fortune Magazine) -- Far from his 18th-century colonial mansion in Philadelphia, Ashok Kheny has been waging a ten-year battle to build a $600 million, 111-kilometer toll road connecting Bangalore to Mysore, the second-largest city in the state of Karnataka.

His opponents: Indian environmentalists who have labeled the project a land grab, and local politicians reluctant to give up property they own or control. The road, about 40% completed, may be called NICE (for Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises), but getting it built has been far from that.

The project, which includes the construction of five new townships, a convention center, and a bypass road--a $4 billion development in all--was conceived in 1995 as a way of easing congestion in Bangalore, the hub of India's tech revolution. The city's population has grown from 200,000 in the 1960s to 7.5 million today, with 500 vehicles a day added to already crowded roads.

But getting things done in India is never easy. Kheny, a 56-year-old serial entrepreneur and managing director of the project, has spent a decade obtaining the required permits, pushing 18 legislative acts through congress, and fighting more than 300 writs and three supreme court appeals trying to stop the project. He has seen seven Prime Ministers and 15 public works ministers come and go. Ask Kheny what took so long, and his reply is blunt: "Corruption. There are too many payoffs involved."

Kheny says his refusal to pay any bribes slowed things down. Others say the delays had more to do with bureaucracy. "Too many agencies come in play when it comes to any decision-making, and there is a lack of coordination among these agencies," says Mohandas Pai, head of human resources at Infosys Technologies, who along with other IT chieftains has been trying to improve Bangalore's infrastructure. Still others say the problem has to do with a lack of urban planning. "There's not a single qualified urban planner in the government," observes V. Ravichandar, CEO of Feedback Consulting and a former member of a Bangalore infrastructure task force. All agree that if land acquisition procedures were more transparent, infrastructure projects would see the light of day much faster.

But opponents of the project, which is being funded by a consortium of a dozen Indian banks, have a different view. "He is acquiring more land than is necessary for the project and displacing poor farmers," says Leo Saldanha, coordinator of the Environment Support Group, an Indian organization fighting the project. Similar charges about excessive land acquisitions by developers have been made across India as land prices have shot up.

Kheny, who made a fortune in the U.S. by starting engineering construction companies that laid fiber-optic cable networks, denies buying more land than the project requires. And he says that far from displacing farmers, the road will make them rich. "We are not only trying to construct a world-class infrastructure project that would decongest the city, shorten the commute, and encourage companies to go beyond Bangalore," says Kheny, "but we are also creating millionaires out of thousands of poor and illiterate villagers."

Typically, Kheny explains, villagers own three to ten acres of land but remain poor because the land has little agricultural or residential value. He says he not only paid double the market rate but also gave sellers 2,400 square feet of land near the new townships for each acre he bought. A villager who sold ten acres would have ten such sites. "At the current price of $125,000 per site," says Kheny, "he is worth a million-plus dollars."

The last hurdle was cleared in early November with a supreme court decision allowing the project to continue. When the toll road is completed in 2008, it will be the autobahn of Bangalore, allowing heavy trucks and other vehicles to bypass the city. More important, the integrated corridor project will create green areas out of barren lands, generate employment in the new townships, and lessen the burden on the city's infrastructure.

Opponents of the project say most commuters will not be willing to pay the 2-cents-a-kilometer toll. But P.B. Mahishi, Karnataka's special secretary who is also in charge of the state's public works projects, thinks otherwise: "When people want to drive on good roads, they will pay."

A pic of the Lakeside Habitat project

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/266/lakesidehabitat1ni8.jpg

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/21/stories/2007012117840100.htm

Green signal for `Reach-1' of metro rail

BANGALORE: As its first anniversary gift, the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party Government on Friday gave the green signal for the commencement of the first phase of civil work on metro rail here by awarding the contract for construction of a 5.5 km viaduct between Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and Byappanahalli to a private company.

The work on this elevated corridor is expected to commence on February 3, the first anniversary of the coalition Government. Disclosing this to presspersons after the Cabinet meeting on Saturday, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that Navayuga, a Hyderabad-based company, which had associated with the Delhi Metro Rail work, had been awarded the Rs. 138.55-crore civil contract for the work.

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director V. Madhu said the company would implement the civil works related to "Reach -1" of the first phase, which had five "reaches" comprising a network of about 40 km.

The civil works on "Reach -1" that connected Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and Byyappanahalli through M.G. Road, Trinity Circle, Ulsoor, CMH Road, Indiranagar and Old Madras Road would be completed in 27 months. The Metro rail would operate on this stretch from March 2010, Mr. Madhu said.

The "Reach -1" will have six stations: near Plaza cinema on M.G. Road, Trinity Circle, Police Officers' Residential Quarters near Ulsoor, near Arya Samaj on CMH Road and near Isolation Hospital on Old Madras Road and the main station at Byyappanahalli.

Mr. Madhu said that tenders would be invited soon for the work on other "reaches" as well as building of rail coaches in four months. The work on the first phase of the project would be completed by December 2011, he said. The first phase would have an underground stretch of 6.76 km near the City Railway Station, Vidhana Soudha, Majestic and City Market.

The stretch of the metro rail network in the first phase would increase from 33 km to nearly 40 km with the decision to extend the route from Yeshwanthpur to Hessarghatta in "Reach - 5" of the first phase.

The Chief Minister and Mr. Madhu made it clear that there was no question of deviating from the planned route alignment for Metro rail.

Monorail is set to enter Bangalore with the BMRC inviting Request for Proposal (RPF) from consultants on Saturday for the implementation of the network. Mr Madhu said the consultants would decide on the appropriate economic model and technology for the implementation of the 55- km of monorail network in the four corridors of Bangalore. The Chief Minister and Mr. Madhu made it clear that monorail would only supplement the metro network as a feeder channel.

Mr. Madhu said that it would cost about Rs. 155 crore to build one km of elevated network for the metro network as against the Rs. 330 crore for the underground network.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/21/stories/2007012114090200.htm

This sector now employs three lakh professionals here with exports amounting annually to $8.4 billion (2005-06 figures compiled by the State's investment facilitator, Karnataka Udyog Mitra). The projection for the current fiscal is $10 billion.

The State Government can quote authoritative sources: the NASSCOM-McKinsey Report 2005 estimates a 25 per cent year-on-year growth for this sector in Karnataka with exports reaching $18 billion by 2010 and providing jobs to one million professionals.



Further boost for the IT sector comes in the industrial policy with a 1,400-acre electronic hardware park near the Devanahalli airport, Earth Stations and Incubation Centres in Tier 2 cities such as Mysore and an IT special economic zone spread over 450 acres of land in Mangalore.

Also planned is the Knowledge City near Bidadi just outside Bangalore, covering 9,600 acres.


Add to this the planned aerospace SEZ near the Devanahalli airport, the apparel park set up in Doddaballapur, the phase-1 of the BT park near Electronics City (to be completed by Bangalore Bio in June 2007, as per today's TOI) and the too many to count IT parks.

Bangalore should and is targeting the following sectors as mainstays of its economy based on its traditional strengths:
1) IT/ITeS
2) Textiles
3) Machine tools
4) Aerospace
5) BT
Toyota and Volvo plants can help in development of a reasonably good auto cluster but there seems to be no news on the auto front.

DMG plans tech centre in Bangalore (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/01/23/stories/2007012302031300.htm)


DMG India, the sales and service arm of Gildmeister Group and a leading player in the CNC metal cutting machine tool industry, will set up a 15,000 sq.ft. technology centre here by the end of 2007. This will be the company first tech centre in India, which will demonstrate a wide range of Deckel Maho and Gildmeister machines.

It is dedicated to developing customised solutions and application support in tooling, fixtures, software and engineering time studies for the auto and auto parts, dies and moulds, aerospace and many other sectors in India. Gildmeister is the leading manufacturer of cutting machine tools worldwide...more

so far looks like the tallest address in Bangalore metro area.
A pic of the Lakeside Habitat project
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/266/lakesidehabitat1ni8.jpg

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=152677
Bangalore absorbs 33.75% of commercial space in India

India’s IT capital Bangalore absorbed the highest 13.5 million, or 33.75%, of the 40 million sq ft of commercial space leased or committed in India in 2006, according to figures obtained from real estate consultants Cushman and Wakefield.

However, it was the NCR-- comprising Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad--that recorded the highest growth of 100% absorbing 6.4 million sq ft in 2006 against just 3.2 million sq ft in 2005. An additional 3.5 million sq ft has been committed for possession in 2007, taking NCR’s total for the year to 9.9 million sq ft--the highest NCR’s history. As a result, office rental values in 2006 shot up as much as 60% in last 12 months.

Chennai, with a total uptake (commitments and absorption) of 6.5 million square feet was third. Mumbai was Chennai’s nearest competitor with 5 million sq.ft. At number five, six and seven were Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata, respectively, with 3 million sq.ft., 2.6 million sq.ft. and 1.5 million sq.ft. Sanjay Dutt, managing director, Cushman and Wakefield explains that Bangalore has continued to lead the realty absorption tally is because the garden city currently has the maximum real estate developers anywhere in the country.

Office market comprises IT & ITES corporate office segment as well as non-IT & ITES corporate segment i.e. insurance, banking, corporate houses etc. For the last few years, the NCR market has been led by IT & ITES sector, especially in Noida & Gurgaon. Delhi has attracted non-IT and ITeS segment because the central business district for the NCR region is in Delhi. Another reason is that “the high demand for commercial space in NCR is driven by IT/ITES and now the retail industry,” Arvind Parakh, CEO (corporate strategy) for Omaxe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6288325.stm
Bangalore's Boomtown Blues
By Steve Schifferes Economics reporter, BBC News, Bangalore

Nitesh Shetty may be Bangalore's youngest property billionaire.

Aged 30, he has 4,000 apartments under construction in the city, with plans to expand his operations into Calcutta, Mumbai and New Delhi.

And he has just sealed a $100m deal with Citigroup to build Bangalore's latest luxury hotel, the Ritz Carlton.

Having dropped out of university pursue a career as a tennis pro he started supplementing his earnings by selling billboard space in Bangalore after getting a 10,000 rupee ($226, £115) loan from his mother.

At 23, he borrowed 500,000 rupees to turn a house in central Bangalore into an office block. Nitesh Shetty got rich in Bangalore's booming property market The home was owned by an old widow, and he gave her a 50% stake in the venture. He then persuaded the bank to rent the ground floor - which covered his interest payments - and he never looked back.

Mr Shetty told the BBC there was no shortage of foreign investors eager to take a stake in India's real estate boom. He has named all his luxury apartment complexes after famous US locations, such as Times Square, Key Biscayne, and Forest Hills (the US Wimbledon), and has hired the Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne to promote his properties.

But in true Indian fashion, Mr Shetty, a bachelor, still lives with his mum.

Bidadi township work to begin from May
Tuesday January 30 2007 10:36 IST

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) would commence work of first satellite town near Bidadi by May.

The Authority has planned five townships and Bidadi project is being taken up on a pilot basis, said BMRDA additional commissioner N Sriraman. He told this website's newspaper that these townships would be developed by private firms on a build-operate and-own (BOO) basis.

The bids for Bidadi township would be finalised in a couple of months and the developer would commence work from May, he said.

The Authority would only retain space for civic amenity, parks and playgrounds in 9,000 acre township which would be developed over next five years. The township would be developed on work-live-play model having independent airstrips and helipads. BMRDA has surveyed all the lakes in the area and they would be rejuvenated, Sriraman said.

Similar townships near Solur, Nandagudi, Sathanur and Ramanagaram would be taken up after finalising Bidadi project. Ramanagaram township would have a super speciality hospital and an institute of rural management.

However, another prestigious project, Airport Expressway is still at preliminary survey stage. The Expressway designed for a speed of 180 kmph stretches 21.2 km from Horamavu to Devanahalli International Airport.

The Expressway would have flyovers on Challakere and Boyihalli Tanks. Sriraman said that the Authority has sent a proposal to government seeking funds for land acquisition. Once the survey concludes, the land acquisition would be notified. In the second phase, BMRDA proposes to connect Expressway with BBMP’s Inner Core Ring Road.

Source [new indian express]

Are they really designing B'lore's expwy network for speeds of 180km/h?

If that's the case then it merely strengthens my suggestions for Hyd's ORR.

Volvo to invest USD 500 mn in Bangalore facility (http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=351015&ssid=53&sid=BUS)

Luxury bus-maker, Volvo, plans to set up its new 1,000-unit capacity facility in Bangalore at an investment of USD 500 million.

"We would set up our new facility in Bangalore with an investment of USD 500 million to manufacture bus-bodies with a capacity of 1,000 units per annum," South East Asia head and vice president, Volvo buses, Jan Vandooren, told a news agency here today.

This new facility will be developed with its joint venture partner, Jaico, and Volvo will hold 70 per cent stake, he added.

This JV was formed a couple of months back.

The new facility should be operational in two years time. "Besides, this will enhance our exports a great deal and enable us to cater to markets in the Middle East and Africa," Vandooren said.

Volvo launched its new inter-city bus version, the B7R CRD here today, featuring the technologically-advanced CRD engine which is euro three compliant.

Other features of this model are the new electrical architecture, instrument cluster and dashboard switches and electronic brake system.

The facilities to adjust bus properties according to one's requirement in the new version, helps reduce repair and maintenance costs, the company claimed.

Are they really designing B'lore's expwy network for speeds of 180km/h?

If that's the case then it merely strengthens my suggestions for Hyd's ORR.

Yes, I was in Bangalore while Vision 2010 was released. I read it like that in some of the literature.

Do you still have B'lore's Vision 2010 documents? If you do, plz scan them and post them, I'd really like to read them.

Do you still have B'lore's Vision 2010 documents? If you do, plz scan them and post them, I'd really like to read them.

Sorry boss, I think I left it in Bangalore itself. It was carried in TOI also. Perhaps we could get it from online archives of TOI.

The proposal of the 49 floor tower at Majestic which will act as the hub for the operations of BMTC, Metro etc was also there.

Naga & Sudheesh,

AFAIK, there is a slight confusion. From what I read, what exists is a Vision 2007, BTRAC-2010 and CDP-2015.

Now these are all different types of plans. With only CDP being the real long shot horizon vision type statement. CDP an all encompasing vision statement is a multi agency vision statement. BMRDA, BMICAPA, BIAAPA, BDA, BBMP, BMRC, BMTC etc are all in the game.

Development of peripheral nodes to decongest blore and achieving connectivity between these nodes and to city proper seems is its focus of BMRDA.

BTW, the 180km/h road is under the purview of BMRDA and if interested visit BMRDA.org for details. I think given that it is a road with North South alignment 180 km/h is simply a design speed. Actual designated speeds might be well below that number. IMHO, they need to be, coz 180 km/h is an irrationally high number for travel on four wheels, given existing lane discipline. In Germany I believe you can go as fast as possible but you have to stick to the right lane and use the left lane only to overtake. Imagine that in India or even the USA.

BTRAC-2010 is a traffic management plan that has BCP, BMTC etc all involved. some parts of it are under execution. but it's purpose is really chaos management.

Vision 2007, is a further localized exercise hopefully addressing the longer term goal. As an example, ORR is now accepted as a major infrastructural asset for B'lore. So grade separation on it has become a major focus point. Work on atleast 6 different grade separation projects have been proposed to start in 2007. These are apart from existing completed grade separation projects on the ORR and those on which work is underway. There are also, inner city grade separation projects and slum development, BWWSB, BESCOM, BMRC and BMTC projects.

Unfortunately, CDP is not available online currently.

Bangalore's Rs 22,377cr worth
BANGALORE: Land grabbing is big business. And as much as 13,614.37 acres of valuable government property worth at least Rs 27,377.75 crore in Bangalore city and Bangalore urban district has been encroached, according to the interim report of a joint house panel of Karnataka legislature.

"Bangalore has become a haven for land mafias, real estate sharks and land encroachers,’’ is the stark conclusion of the joint house panel headed by ruling JD(S) member A T Ramaswamy, which inquired into different government departments and statutory bodies like Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, Bangalore Development Authority, city and town municipal councils, Karnataka Housing Board and Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board.


In a damning indictment, the panel observed that the government departments and statutory bodies have ``completely failed in their duty to protect government and public land,’’ and tersely remarked: ``They have become not only mute spectators but their employees have become active participants, abettors and even promoters of these offences in many cases.’’

The panel said about 3 lakh bogus title deeds had been issued by the revenue department in Bangalore district alone, according to depositions by senior officials, thanks to the ``hand-in-glove operation of the staff.’’

The cooperation department has confessed that encroachment of land earmarked for civic amenities, public parks, playgrounds and roads could not be checked due to pressure from the lobbies of vested interests and dire threats from influential people, it said.


The seriousness of the land grabbing menace was such that unscrupulous elements had managed to fabricate documents and illegally claim ownership of government lands in several cases. As much as 9,294 acre of gomal and waste land had been encroached upon as on November 30 last year and valuable property belonging to the civic body had been grabbed, which had been duly regularised illegally or simply granted flouting the restrictions against grant of any government land within a radius of 18 kms from the city limits.

Even temple lands worth crore of rupees had been sold on the basis of false documents, the panel said observing: “If all the properties belonging to the 68 temples loacated in Bangalore city alone is given on rent or lease at prevailing market rates in the respective areas, the income generated can take care of renovation and development of all temples in the entire state.’’


The Ramaswamy panel has recommended setting up a special court to exclusively deal with encroachments on the model of the Andhra Pradesh Land Grabbing Prohibition Act of 1982 to check infructuous lititgation and effective implmentation of all existing laws to check land grabbing besides initiating legal action against government and public servants for creating false documents or destruction of records to facilitate land grabbing.


The Hindu
A.T. Ramaswamy committee report recommends jail for land grabbers
Bangalore: The Legislature should enact a law on the lines of the Andhra Pradesh Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act 1982 to punish land grabbers and those who abet such crimes.

The period of imprisonment for such offenders should be a minimum of three years with a fine.

This is the highlight of the interim report submitted in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday by the Chairman of the Joint Legislature Committee on encroachment of government land in Bangalore and the adjoining areas, A.T. Ramaswamy.

The report has also recommended that a special court be constituted for speedy trial of all the land encroachment cases.

The committee has so far detected encroachment of 13,614.37 acres of land worth Rs. 27,377.75 crore belonging to the departments of Revenue, Muzrai, Forest, Minor Irrigation (tank beds), Health, Animal Husbandry and Transport apart from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), the town municipal councils and city municipal councils, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB), the Wakf Board, various house building cooperative societies, Bangalore University and the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board.

Graveyards too...

The land grabbers have not spared graveyards and have encroached upon 599 acres of this apart from 3,246 acres of waste weirs, canals and roads.

The interim report has held several government departments and agencies responsible for the encroachment and said government personnel had also colluded with the land grabbers. The Revenue Department said the officials had issued three lakh "bogus title deeds" in Bangalore Urban district alone.

The report recommended creation of a permanent legal authority headed by a High Court judge to take appropriate action against encroachers. This would act as a deterrent. It should have powers to conduct prima facie inquiry and register cases and the authority should be provided adequate police and administrative staff.

High land cost

Emphasising the need for such a legal authority, the report said encroachments were more in and around Bangalore owing to the high land cost.

"This naturally leads to encroachment of all lands, including parks, playgrounds and tank beds."

Mr. Ramaswamy recommended issuing orders to appoint an officer, not below the rank of Principal Secretary to the Government, exclusively for implementing its report. The report recommended legal action under Sections 197, 198 and 464 of the Indian Penal Code against government or public servants for offences such as creating false documents or destruction of official records.

The committee recommended that all departments and other agencies such as the urban local bodies and statutory institutions should appoint officers as competent authorities under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupation) Act for removing encroachments of government land and other land acquired by it.

It suggested that the deputy commissioner of the district or the assistant commissioner should issue eviction orders to retrieve the encroached land and other departments should supply records to assist the official.

BTW, the 180km/h road is under the purview of BMRDA and if interested visit BMRDA.org for details. I think given that it is a road with North South alignment 180 km/h is simply a design speed. Actual designated speeds might be well below that number. IMHO, they need to be, coz 180 km/h is an irrationally high number for travel on four wheels, given existing lane discipline. In Germany I believe you can go as fast as possible but you have to stick to the right lane and use the left lane only to overtake. Imagine that in India or even the USA.


Here's a suggestion that might make the 180km/h speed limit feasable: build all of Bangalore's new expressways as quadrupe-carriageway ones (with service roads to seperated non-expressway traffic from the expressway). The outer carriageways shall provide exits at an interval of 2-3km or so, with a speed limit of 100km/h. However, the inner carriageways shall be accessible only from other expressways (and state highways), so the exit spacing on the inner carriageways should be around 15km or more. With no interuption for 15km at a stretch, speeds of 180km/h will be feasable. Of course, the inner carriageways will need shoulders on the passing side in addition to the usual spot (safety issues), tollbooths will have to be built at all ramps onto the outer carriageways (and from state highways to B'lore's expressways) to both fund the system and provide a means to control access (price controls, not to mention the presense of toll collection officials to turn away incapable traffic).

To use the inner carriageways (and drive at 180km/h+), your car or motorbike (which must have an engine capacity of at least 500cc) must pass (a) an acceleration test and (b) a speed test. The minimum 0-100km/h time shall be 8 seconds. If you pass the test, you get green bumper stickers and a "High-Speed" window sticker. If you fail, you don't get anything The inner carriageways won't have a speed limit per se, but the "reccomendation" should be 175km/h (you may legally go faster, but if you get into an accident you have to pay more on insurance than if you crashed at 175).

The inner carriageways will only be open to cars and motorbikes that pass the aformentioned regulations, and motorbikes will not be allowed to carry passengers (and if you get caught riding a motorbike on the inner carriageways without a helmet, it gets impounded until you pay 1.5x the bike's market value), with a 100km/h speed limit.

The outer carriageways will be open to cars, trucks (including tour buses and whatnot), and motorbikes of 200cc or more. The frontage roads will be open to everyone and have a speed limit of 60km/h.

The setup is similar to the 401 Expressway in Toronto, just to give everyone an idea.

Due to demand issues, the express carriageways shall be 2 lanes each, with a lane width of 3.75m (and 3.5m shoulders on either side), with a 1m center divider. The dividers between the express carriageways and the local carriageways shall be 1m. Each local carriageway shall have 3 lanes, with a width of 3.5m and a 3.25m shoulder on the exit side. The frontage roads shall be 2-lane roads with center turning lanes, with each lane being 3m wide. There should be 2.5m sidewalks on either side. Also, the frontage roads shall be seperated from the local carriageways by 2m wide dividers (to provide for U-turn ramps and stuff).

The total right of way needed is 86.5m, or about. 283ft 8.6in, in other words, the right of way needs to be either 284ft or 87m to be safe. Needless to say, a lot of demolition is needed.

By reducing the width of the dividers between the express lanes and local expressway lanes from 1m each to 0.25m each, 2.25m can be shaven off the required width of the right of way. Similarly, reducing the width of the divider between the local express lanes and the service roads from 2m each to 0.5m each shaves 3m off the required right of way. Lastly, changing the service roads from 2-lane 2-way roads with center turning lanes to paralell 2-lane one-way roads without center turning lanes removes 6m.

With the above changes, the required minimum right of way goes from 86.5m to 75.25m. That's down to about 246ft 10in.

Thus, if Bangalore ever frees up any rights-of-way along its proposed routes (or near them), the above plan is somewhat feasable. The price of complex interchange construction (due to the need for ramps both from 2 carriageways in each direction, as opposed to one) is a serious potential issue, but its a good financial reason as to why the 180km/h bits wont have anywhere near as many ramps as the 100km/h ones (and the 60km/h roads on the sides are to have roundabouts and stuff).

But can Bangalore even get any 250ft rights-of-way? Well, let's just say that if Hyderabad can upgrade a main road in Punjagutta from 50ft to 150ft (and demolish a bunch of illegal buildings in the process), why can't bangalore make a 100ft road into a 300ft one, especially if it still has open spaces next to it? Perhaps its because some of the structures in the way aren't illegal (at least on 100ft road, anyway...)

Once again, here's an overview of space allocation in my proposal:


2.5m sidewalk
6m one-way service road (2x3m lanes, 60km/h)
0.5m barrier w/ noise protection
3.25m shoulder
10.5m local expressway lanes (3x3.5m lanes, 100km/h)
0.25m barrier w/ noise protection
3.5m shoulder
7.5m high-speed express lanes (2x3.75m lanes, 175km/h+)
3.5m shoulder
0.25m barrier w/ noise protection + wind barrier
3.5m shoulder
7.5m high-speed express lanes (2x3.75m lanes, 175km/h+)
3.5m shoulder
0.25m barrier w/ noise protection
10.5m local expressway lanes (3x3.5m lanes, 100km/h)
3.25m shoulder
0.5m barrier w/ noise protection
6m one-way service road (2x3m lanes, 60km/h)
2.5m sidewalk


Glossary:

Local Express Lane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-Express_lane)
401 Expressway, Toronto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_provincial_highway_401)

Plz share your thoughts on this proposal here.

Naga,
Looks like you have a need to speed. :)
i did not get what purpose such roads serve. here is why..

Considering these are city roads, towards your calculation, you will have to consider setbacks, which in theory, atleast in B’lore, are supposed to be > 12m, for the type of roads you are talking about.

Even if it were possible, driving at > 100 mph under any traffic conditions, as a means of day to day transportation is psychologically very demanding, tiring and dangerous.

The margin of error is considerably reduced at these speeds and any mistake is guaranteed to be fatal, especially given that very few cars in India, even foreign made ones, have the appropriate safety features. Also consider child safety.

From fuel consumption point of view optimal speeds are about 65mph ~ 100kph. At greater speeds you are guzzling gas.

The noise levels from such roads is going to be very high.

Considering the focus traffic is intra-city, you must consider that most trips are < 20km and time saved is very small but risk taken is very high.

Now more specifically regarding Bangalore.
There are active plans for widening of all major arterial and ring roads. And different roads have had different levels of successes in land acquisition. But I am sure none is for roads of the scales you have mentioned.

While at it, let me also put forward my ideal system.
What I would like to see is multiple bazaars/markets in different parts of the city instead of CMH road type of establishments. Since this is a gali gopura, and business roads are not going to go anywhere, what I would be happy to see in Bangalore is a network of Chennai ECR type of transport roads, that have cleanly separated business and transport roads.
If they achieve, 30kph within city that will be stupendous.

What gives me wet dreams is a coarse grid of metro network, over a localized finer clean energy bus/mono/auto grid- all under a single transport authority. So that it will be possible to strategize. :) :)

Zero Traffic, stone/ brick paved CBD. Rationalization of FSI. Opening up space for public greens, grounds and museums. :) :)

Naga,
Looks like you have a need to speed. :)
i did not get what purpose such roads serve. here is why..

And so do Germans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn) and Emiratis (http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=11577).

Considering these are city roads, towards your calculation, you will have to consider setbacks, which in theory, atleast in B’lore, are supposed to be > 12m, for the type of roads you are talking about.

Are you referring to setbacks between the local express carriageways and the frontage roads or between the outer edge of the transport corridor and buildings? Remember, on the frontage roads, the speed limit is a feasable for city surface traffic 60km/h, and there's a 2.5m sidewalk next to each frontage road.

Even if it were possible, driving at > 100 mph under any traffic conditions, as a means of day to day transportation is psychologically very demanding, tiring and dangerous.

If you don't feel comfortable driving at 160km/h+, then drive exclusively on the local-express lanes, where the speed limit is 100km/h (and the exit spacing is 2-3km).

The margin of error is considerably reduced at these speeds and any mistake is guaranteed to be fatal, especially given that very few cars in India, even foreign made ones, have the appropriate safety features. Also consider child safety.

It is because the margin of error is reduced that I have made my design the way I have: on the frontage roads, there are at-grade intersections and all vehicles are allowed, so the speed limit is 60km/h (which gives a reasonable ammount of error tolerance). The local express lanes are significantly access-controlled, are completely grade seperated (and are accessible by ramps from various other roads) and have a speed limit of 100km/h, since there is no cross traffic but a significant ammount of weaving. The high-speed lanes, which as mentioned before are walled off from the rest of the road, are suggested to be built with more safety features than usual, hence the use of shoulders on both sides (something that you see in North America but not in Europe, not even Germany), extremely limited access (which is why it's only 2 lanes in each direction on the express lanes), and the actual points of access are at interchanges with other expressways (and state highways when feasable, but not all of them).

Now let's look at lane width. 3m, the suggested lane width of the frontage roads, is equal to 118", and the widest private motor vehicle ever made was 86.5" wide.

3.5m, the suggested width for the local express lanes (100km/h), is equivalent to 138", which means there are 20" lane space (and thus a little more error tolerance) than on the frontage roads.

Finally, we get to the high-speed express carriageways (175km/h+). Here, the lane width is about 148", or 10" more error tolerance. This may not be as much as the tolerance difference between 60km/h and 100km/h, but keep in mind that this part of the corridor is likely to have much less traffic than the rest of it, and that it has two shoulders instead of one, not to mention the fact that it won't have any ramps branching off any less than 15km from each other.

From a child safety point of view, here are some regulations for the high-speed corridor in the middle:


All children under 12 MUST be in the back seat and have a seatbelt on. If you are caught violating this rule, you get a progressive fine of Rs. 15,000, 30,000 and 45,000. On the third offence within 6 months, you nto only pay the fine but you also get your kid put in foster care (since you are deemed incompetent)
All children under 6 MUST be in child seats with 4-point seat belts. Fail here, you pay the same progressive penalty as is mentioned above.
There's already a prohibition on taking passengers on a high-speed motorbike, so taking a kid on the back has the same penalty as forgetting your helmet at home or taking any other passenger.
Road crossing: Foot overbridges, of the type currently being built in Hyderabad, will eliminate the need for pedestrians to cross the road at surface level. High fences on the express corridors will dissuare people from climbing over them and thus they will have no choice but to use the FOB.
School Buses: Since they are legally classified as trucks, they can use the local express lanes but not the high-speed lanes in the middle.


From fuel consumption point of view optimal speeds are about 65mph ~ 100kph. At greater speeds you are guzzling gas.

You also waste gas by idling in front of stoplights for large ammounts of time. I'm not advocating fuel wastage, but I just wanted to point it out. It's better to waste gas while traveling at high speed than to waste it while sitting around doing nothing.

The noise levels from such roads is going to be very high.

That's why I suggested noise barriers. Which reminds me, they may have to be 5m (~16ft5in) high, and depending on the cost of construction, noise barriers may have to be built on top of the high-speed corridor. The barriers between the frontage roads and the local-express lanes can probably be of normal size, the oversize 5m ones are for the high-speed bit in the middle.

Considering the focus traffic is intra-city, you must consider that most trips are < 20km and time saved is very small but risk taken is very high.

Those short-distance expressway trips can be made on the local-express lanes, remember? And they'll have ramps between expressways too, so you'll only need to use the inner high-speed corridor for long trips (20km+).

Now more specifically regarding Bangalore.
There are active plans for widening of all major arterial and ring roads. And different roads have had different levels of successes in land acquisition. But I am sure none is for roads of the scales you have mentioned.

Let's see...Begur road is 150ft from silk Board Jn, and continues on to become Hosur Rd, on which an elevated expwy is being built. It is heavily built up on both sides, but most of it is probably illegal. The Outer Ring Road is also 150ft from Silk Board Jn. to Hebbal (excpet for a few elevated bits, like the Benniganahalli grade seperator). If it is one of the roads that's been marked for widening, then it's probably going to go up to 200ft or so (there's a lot of open space next to it, but also a ton of illegal constructions).

This corridor style is most appropriate for the Eastern ORR bit, a small part of Begur Rd, and part of the BMIC (i.e. upgrading the existing 9km urban bit near Bangalore, and possibly building the rest of it as a 6-lane expwy from the get go), assuing all of B'lore's road widenign projects go smoothly.

While at it, let me also put forward my ideal system.
What I would like to see is multiple bazaars/markets in different parts of the city instead of CMH road type of establishments. Since this is a gali gopura, and business roads are not going to go anywhere, what I would be happy to see in Bangalore is a network of Chennai ECR type of transport roads, that have cleanly separated business and transport roads.
If they achieve, 30kph within city that will be stupendous.

You still need expressways even with pedestrian districts (which I belive in) and mass transport (they are complementary and when implemented right, they can help prevent each other from becoming overloaded). 30km/h is an unacceptable speed limit anywhere outside of residential areas (it causes driver frustration and makes short trips unnecessarily painful).

What gives me wet dreams is a coarse grid of metro network, over a localized finer clean energy bus/mono/auto grid- all under a single transport authority. So that it will be possible to strategize. :) :)

No disagreement there.

Zero Traffic, stone/ brick paved CBD. Rationalization of FSI. Opening up space for public greens, grounds and museums. :) :)

No disagreement there either, though the cbd will still need a few traffic throughfares (even if it's pedestrian-friendly). These will most likely have to be built in underground tunnels to maintain the right look and feel.

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/02/10/stories/2007021012030100.htm
Mahatma Gandhi Road set to change forever

BANGALORE: Take out cameras and shoot the pictures of Bangalore's most talked-about road.

The ever-so-vibrant Mahatma Gandhi Road will never be the same again. The road that presents one of the great contrasts — a catwalk like space occupied by those dressed to kill on the one side, and a peaceful and picturesque boulevard on the other — is set to change forever. People using this most arterial road of the Cantonment area will have to endure the construction of the elevated structure for the Metro rail whose pillars will rest on the boulevard.

Citizens can expect traffic diversions within a fortnight for the construction of Metro rail on a seven-km stretch of the 33-km Metro rail network. When ready, the imposing elevated structure will partly loom over the heads of those walking on the boulevard and partly on the road. The contractor, Navayuga Engineering Company (India) (NEC), is all set to move in the equipment.

The Hyderabad-based company has bagged the Rs. 138-crore award for construction of the elevated structure from Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium to Byappanahalli.

Draft plan : Managing Director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) V. Madhu told The Hindu that the contractor has already come with a draft plan for traffic diversion. The BMRCL officials were considering the plan.

The draft plan will be placed before the committee constituted by the Chief Secretary consisting of representatives of BMRCL, the police and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation. It would be announced much ahead of the commencement of actual work, Mr. Madhu said.

Mobilising equipment: The NEC has a month's time (from January 20) to mobilise equipment and start work. The firm has time till February 19 to start the work. The contractor would first begin work on developing the casting yard on the open site (which the Defence has given to BMRCL on a temporary basis) on Old Madras Road near Indiranagar BDA complex.

The elevated structure will have fewer than 2,000 pre-cast segments — concrete blocks made away from the site and transported and put into shape on the site.

Elevated tracks : Though the length of the elevated tracks will be seven km, NEC will build a total of 5.5-km of elevated structure. The six stations and the attached elevated tracks will be awarded to another company. BMRCL has called another tender for Byappanahalli station-cum-yard where facility to park 170 coaches will be created.

Terminal : The terminal, spread across 1.5 lakh square metres, is estimated to cost Rs. 97 crore. The complex above the terminal will measure about 2.25 lakh sq ft. The BMTC plans to create another terminal at Jalahalli for 110 coaches.

NEC is building a five-km elevated structure for the Delhi Metro, according to Mr. Madhu. It is the flagship entity of the Rs. 700-crore Navayuga group. It constructed 1,800-square metre RCC Diaphragm Wall for the Embassy Heights on Magarath Road in 1997-98 using a special type of foundation.

NEC has 27 months — till April 19, 2009 — to complete the work. The BMRC will put up signals and rails and take up electrification thereafter. The trains are expected to move on from the Stadium to Byappanahalli from March 2010.

Pebble Bay
http://www.braheja.com/archive/residential_BLR.html

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3762/pebblebayrahejablroi7.jpg

http://www.idebinc.com/images/build24big.jpg

http://www.idebinc.com/images/build24big.jpg




who is the builder/contractor of the project? any website? it looks pretty good in the model.

Mukesh, Anil eye Bangalore IT project (http://business-standard.com/compindustry/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=275585&subLeft=1&leftnm=1)

Ambani brothers – Mukesh and Anil – are the only two Indians of the 24 bidders shortlisted for the Rs 50,000 crore, 10,000 acre Knowledge City being developed specifically to meet the requirements of the IT industry’s growth in Karnataka. The other developers are from across the globe, including players from Dubai, Europe and Asia.

The project is being developed in Bidadi, around 25 km from the city limits of Bangalore. When completed, the township will meet the space requirements of the IT industry in Karnataka for 10 years, growing at 30 per cent a year and will have the capacity to house 7.5 lakh employees.

M N Vidhyashankar, secretary - IT, biotechnology and science & technology, Karnataka government, today said this project would be an integrated township, which would have office space, residential colonies, hospitals, shopping malls, schools and all the required amenities. He was speaking at an interactive session with the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

“We expect to hand over the land to the developer by April this year and work on the first phase is expected to kick off during the second half of the year. Then it will take around 18 months for the initial phase to be commissioned,” he said. The first phase will involve work over 2,500 acres.

The Knowledge City will be connected to the upcoming Bangalore International Airport by an eight-lane highway, which when completed will connect the airport and the Knowledge City in a 30-minute drive.

In addition to the knowledge city for the IT sector, the Karnataka government has also awarded the biotech park contract to US-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. “Nearly 90 per cent of the biotech parks in the US have been developed by this company and this is the first time it is venturing into Asia,” Vidhyashankar said.

The project will be developed across 106 acres in the Electronic City at an investment of Rs 550 crore.

pding..........................I got no clue who the builders are. I was just googling.

who is the builder/contractor of the project? any website? it looks pretty good in the model.

Mukesh, Anil eye Bangalore IT project (http://business-standard.com/compindustry/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=275585&subLeft=1&leftnm=1)

Wow! This would be a gigantic project!
10,000 acres of Knowledge City within 25 Km of Bangalore?
how would/did they manage to get so much land, so close to to B'lore for this project ...

would this kill the competition or slow down the growth of IT in other areas in the region...

Rs 50,000 crore... 10,000 acre Knowledge City... 25 km from the city limits of Bangalore... hand over the land to the developer by April this year ... work on the first phase ...during the second half of the year... around 18 months for the initial phase to be commissioned... first phase will involve work over 2,500 acres...

2,500 acres of brand new Knowledge City (phase-1) by Dec 2008...
:applause:

Bangalore does have enough land around it... this bidadi satellite town is in Bangalore - Mysore highway.. the present government has started many new projects [infrastructure and IT related] and has been implementing them without making much noise.. the 8 lane road which connects this township to new airport will be part of 364 KM Satellite Town ring road which will connect all surrounding taluk headquarters.

Wow! This would be a gigantic project!
10,000 acres of Knowledge City within 25 Km of Bangalore?
how would/did they manage to get so much land, so close to to B'lore for this project ...

would this kill the competition or slow down the growth of IT in other areas in the region...



2,500 acres of brand new Knowledge City (phase-1) by Dec 2008...
:applause:

Is Bidadi an agricultural neighbourhood ...
Has the Govt already aquired this land or is aquisition work-in-progress ...

http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/23/stories/2007022305170400.htm

Satellite town ring road planned in BMRDA region

Special Correspondent

The 364-km road will be built at a cost of Rs. 5,340 crore The 364-km road will be built at a cost of Rs. 5,340 crore

# 8,600 acres to be acquired to develop the eight-lane ring road
# Roadworks to be executed in four packages

BANGALORE: To provide road connectivity to seven taluk centres in and around Bangalore, the State Government has decided to construct a 364-km satellite town ring road at a cost of Rs. 5,340 crore in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) region.

Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Minister for Public Works H.D. Revanna said 8,600 acres would be acquired to develop the eight-lane ring road in the next five years.

The roadworks would be executed in four packages. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) would conduct a feasibility study in 14 months.

The State would submit a proposal to the Infrastructure Fund of the Centre seeking money for land acquisition and construction. The road would be constructed on Design Build Own Operate and Transfer (DBOOT) basis, he said.

The department also decided to construct an intermediate ring road (150 km) with an investment of Rs. 2,000 crore.

The NHAI had approved the road, which would connect Nelamangala-international airport at Devanahalli-Attibele-

Tavarakere-Nelamangala.

Mr. Revanna said an airport expressway from Horamavu on the outskirts of Bangalore to the international airport would be constructed at a cost of Rs. 450 crore. About 400 acres would be acquired for 26-km road, he said.

The Government had already launched a programme to improve the quality of 39 roads (883.40 km) to be executed at a cost of Rs. 683.56 crore. The work on these roads would be completed by March 2008. Construction of 39 roads would provide better connectivity to all towns in the BMRDA area.

Mr. Revanna said the Government would approach the World Bank for loan to develop roads connecting taluk headquarters in all districts under the Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project (KSHIP-II).

The KSHIP-I, which commenced in 2001 with funds provided by the World Bank, is likely to be completed in June.

Is Bidadi an agricultural neighbourhood ...
Has the Govt already aquired this land or is aquisition work-in-progress ...

Bidadi is in industrial area.. Toyota plant is located here... but for this project they have acquired farm land also... infact most of the land is agricultural land...

acquisition for 1st phase is complete.. and remaining is progressing..

Wow! This is a Super Mega Ring Road Project.
This is gonna be one of the largest (Satellite Town) Ring Roads, even in International standards.
Bangalore leads !.

Source [new Indian Express]

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE120070223133412&Page=1&Title=Bangalore&Topic=0

Rs 28,202 crore investment proposals cleared
Saturday February 24 2007 00:00 IST

BANGALORE: The State High Level Clearance Committee (SHLCC) headed by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday cleared 30 investment proposals, including 15 manufacturing units, 3 SEZs and 12 other projects. With an estimated investment of Rs 28,205.05 crore, these 30 units are likely to create employment generation of around 1.43 lakh.

The SHLCC cleared two proposals of Reliance Industries with an aggregate investment of Rs 14,000 crore. They include: gas distribution network by the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) And agri-retail outlets by the Reliance Retail Limited (RRL).

The RIL plans to invest Rs 12,000 crore to establish gas distribution network covering 27 districts and 60 towns. The proposal is pending final approval from the Centre, Industries Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu told reporters on Friday.

As per the proposal, Reliance would supply natural gas from the Block KG - D6 for use in power generation, transport, domestic, industrial and commercial sectors. Recently, the CM had urged the Centre to clear the project at the earliest.

The RRL plans to set-up 51 agri-retail outlets across the State besides establishing 75 rural business hubs. The proposal pegged at Rs 2,000 crore also plans to establish three food processing units.

Other projects approved by the committee include a proposal to set up a IT-ITES SEZ in Dakshina Kananda district by the Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) with an investment of Rs 491 crore.

Even the proposal of the European Aeronautics Defense and Space Company (EADS) to establish a Research and Development centre in Bangalore with an initial investment of Rs 178.2 crore was also cleared.

364km? Man that's gonna be the largest suburban motorway ring road on the whole planet if they build it! But whatever happened to the plan to divide bangalore into 3 urban motorway belts?

364kms is pretty impressive! Plus another 150kms of ring road is awesome. See Naga,I bet our 2016 expressway prediction will be 1/4th of the actual expressways constructed ;)

Here's more
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8829/bangbr4.jpg

TOI B'lore Feb23

At last count it was 3,044km by 2016. The Taj Expressway's length has now been set at 160km instead of 200km, so its down to 3,004km. However, with these new reports from B'lore, we need to add 364+150km, that's 514km. That goes up to a total of 3,558km by 2016, not counting the inevitable new proposals that will be made, i.e. Mangalore-Mysore, Hyderabad IRR (55km), Delhi Ring Road and ORR (both of which are presumably going to be totally grade-seperated by 2010, and thus easily convertible to expressway status), etc.

Also, a 45km elevated expwy has been announced in Calcutta, so let's increase our estimate to 3,603km.

364kms is pretty impressive! Plus another 150kms of ring road is awesome. See Naga,I bet our 2016 expressway prediction will be 1/4th of the actual expressways constructed ;)

Here's more
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8829/bangbr4.jpg

TOI B'lore Feb23

The massive infra projects are Very impressive:applause:

The report does not mention deadlines. For the airport expressway I believe it should be by May2008.How wide is the current road that leads to the airport?

Wow! This would be a gigantic project!
10,000 acres of Knowledge City within 25 Km of Bangalore?
how would/did they manage to get so much land, so close to to B'lore for this project ...

would this kill the competition or slow down the growth of IT in other areas in the region...



2,500 acres of brand new Knowledge City (phase-1) by Dec 2008...
:applause:

Awesome:cheers: Very positive news for the IT sector.

NH7 to BIAL is 6 laned AFAIK.

deleted...

At last count it was 3,044km by 2016. The Taj Expressway's length has now been set at 160km instead of 200km, so its down to 3,004km. However, with these new reports from B'lore, we need to add 364+150km, that's 514km. That goes up to a total of 3,558km by 2016, not counting the inevitable new proposals that will be made, i.e. Mangalore-Mysore, Hyderabad IRR (55km), Delhi Ring Road and ORR (both of which are presumably going to be totally grade-seperated by 2010, and thus easily convertible to expressway status), etc.

Also, a 45km elevated expwy has been announced in Calcutta, so let's increase our estimate to 3,603km.

I meant that with all these new proposals to build expressways being announced ,i am sure that all will add up to atleast 15000kms by 2016. :)

Anyways, I feel that rather than building a Ring Road around B'lore,It would be better if all southern states pitch in and connect each other with expressways.

I meant that with all these new proposals to build expressways being announced ,i am sure that all will add up to atleast 15000kms by 2016. :)

Anyways, I feel that rather than building a Ring Road around B'lore,It would be better if all southern states pitch in and connect each other with expressways.

Something like this is already being planned... see this old news.. not sure this news has been posted on this thread

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=11342386&postcount=10

Yea,thats been posted in the Highway thread before but am still waiting for it to materialize. A similar proposal by the Malaysian govt was in the news last year.

Both projects by the Malaysians seem to have fallen off the radar. They probably changed their proposal from 3,000km to 7,000km as far as I know.

Their Chennai-Trivandrum and Hyderabad-Pune proposals sound good, however I can't help but wonder how they'll handle the Delhi-Calcutta one due to the fact that the Taj Expressway is coming up. a 3rd alignment of the same route (NH2-alternate 1-alternate 2) is probably a bit excessive. IMO, they should change it to Mumbai-Calcutta.

And while they're at it, they should extend the Hyderabad-Pune Expwy up to Vizag via Guntur (on a different alignment fromt he current Vijaywada highway). This will come in handy as Vizag gradually becomes a bigger and bigger port.

Intermediate ring road may get nod
The Hindu

It will link all the national highways passing through Bangalore city

# State wants NHAI to undertake construction
# Survey has been completed and alignment notified

Bangalore: The Centre has assured the State Government that its proposal for the development of an intermediate ring road around Bangalore is under consideration.

Sources in the Government told The Hindu that the Union Government is likely to call for global bids to prepare a feasibility plan for the project before giving its final approval. The State has submitted two ring road projects for approval: a 200-km intermediate ring road or a 300-km satellite towns ring road. The Centre is likely to approve the intermediate ring road since it will link the national highways criss-crossing Bangalore city.

BMRDA in charge

The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), which has been given overall charge of building ring roads and satellite towns to decongest Bangalore, has received a shot in the arm with the assurance given by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu. The State Government's aim is to complete the project in two years along with the simultaneous development of at least two satellite towns.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Minister for Public Works and Energy H.D. Revanna, State's Special Representative in New Delhi Mahima Patel, BMRDA Commissioner Sudhir Krishna and several top officials called on Mr. Baalu recently and requested that the National Highways Authority of India undertake the construction of the ring road.

The State Government, in its proposal to the Centre, has said that traffic congestion in Bangalore is largely due to long-distance lorries passing through the city on their way to other States. According to an estimate prepared by the BMRDA, the cost per kilometre of the eight-lane intermediate and satellite towns ring road is around Rs. 10 crore. The total cost of the projects works out to Rs. 5,000 crore. If the Centre undertakes even one project, it will result in quick completion of the project, apart from considerable savings to the State exchequer.

State of the art

BMRDA Commissioner Sudhir Krishna said the two ring roads would be state of the art with service roads alongside, avenue trees and service ducts for telephone, electricity, telephone and gas lines. The BMRDA and the Public Works Department has already completed the survey for the two ring roads and notified the alignment.

Even if it's 200km long it will still be a massive project by int'l standards, 200km is the length of the M25 in London.

Elita Horizon

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9234/elitahorizonblrls4.jpg

^^ Hmmmm...good, seems 20+ floors..

Mercator to open centre in Bangalore (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/02/27/stories/2007022704570400.htm)


Mercator, the IT division of the Emirates Group, is planning to set up a software development centre in Bangalore.

The investment will be in the order of a couple of millions of dollars. The centre could be a division of Mercator or a joint venture with one of the company's existing partners, said Mr Frank Zenke, Vice-President, Sales and Market Development, Mercator. Its partners include IBM, Satyam and Oracle.

The idea behind the India offshore centre is to increase the headcount to keep up with rising demand. The company employs 1,500 in Dubai and plans to hire 300 in Bangalore. Work on open source and software for the operational side of airlines will be undertaken. The Bangalore centre will work on `large' projects for both in-house needs and for other airlines, said Mr Zenke. Mercator currently offers software such as RAPID for revenue accounting, travel software, cargo ground handling management, Web-based cargo systems and customer relationship management (CRM) software. It has over 100 clients including Airbus, Jet Airways and British Airways.

Mercator is one of the IT divisions of Dnata, the $485 million ground-handling agency of the Emirates Group. Last year, IT contributed to 19.5 per cent of Dnata's revenues.

Emirates expects medical tourism to drive air traffic from the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi into Bangalore in the coming years. It is organising a group of doctors to spend three days touring the city. They will tie up with local doctors and hospitals of repute to ensure best medical treatment is available to patients from the Gulf.

Elita Horizon

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9234/elitahorizonblrls4.jpg




IMO, these projects look so awesome. how many actually turn up like this???

^^ for some reasons, I dont like such designs. they look like giant walls to me.

IMO, these projects look so awesome. how many actually turn up like this???

well for starters, you could take the greenery off the rendering.....

IMO, these projects look so awesome. how many actually turn up like this???

Its all happening in Bangalore. Their first project, Elita Promenade is fast progressing.

And generally the landscaping also turns out to be good, inside the campus. I have been to some of the completed projects.

As Goram has said the greenery of the sarroundings will not be that much as shown in the persp. (Except in Kerala).

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/05/stories/2007030505140300.htm


Work on Rs. 30-cr. road project resumed in Hubli
5.71-km road to be developed at a cost of Rs. 3.68 crore
Contractor asked to complete work before the monsoon
The tender process was completed recently

HUBLI: Work on the first package of the Rs. 30-crore road development project that was stalled almost a year ago has now been resumed following reintroduction of the package.

Superintending Engineer of HDMC L.R. Nayak, who is also in-charge of the project, said the contractor had been asked to complete the asphalting work before the onset of monsoon(end of May).

Under the first package i.e., Hubli(North) 5.71 km of road has to be laid at a cost of Rs. 3.68 crore. The work is going on in full swing and is likely to be completed within the stipulated time.

BANGALORE INNER CORE ELEVATED RING ROAD -->30KMS!

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7603/bangaloreringvv5.th.jpg (http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bangaloreringvv5.jpg)

via HT Del Mar6

iu where did you find this? (HT Delhi??)
i have been following this up for a few days. trying to map this.
it seems quite expensive.

there is another road over SWD project that is on anvil that is interesting. they have invited private players.

Yeah,found it in HT Delhi

I read somewhere it would cost around 1800 Crores.

So the proposed road is 2x2 laned?

Does Central Bangalore have the space for such a huge project?

I dont know which elevated road's picture they picked up for their rendering but if the actual project requires the same amount of space, is it available? I think it will be a completely new design which they will probably try to fit in the space the corporation owns already, because if more land needs to be acquired, well then, i'd add a couple more years to it.

^^ Saw that Advt inviting expressions of Interest in HINDU, Trivandrum edition yesterday.

Wont be just 2x2 lane, the advt was saying 4 lane bi directional, so it is 8 lanes, isn't it?

And also 'no traffic signals'. BTW I too have Kronik's apprehensions regarding space.

Anyway great going Bangalore...:cheers:

They're probably going to do a bit of demolition.

They said they're going to have 56 junctions over 30km...but that's one interchange about every 536m. That's a bit too cramped, so expect to see plenty of c/d roads as well as 401-style collector-express lanes.

^^ Saw that Advt inviting expressions of Interest in HINDU, Trivandrum edition yesterday.

Wont be just 2x2 lane, the advt was saying 4 lane bi directional, so it is 8 lanes, isn't it?

And also 'no traffic signals'. BTW I too have Kronik's apprehensions regarding space.

Anyway great going Bangalore...:cheers:

I too agree 4 lane bidirectional does not seem realistic - will hv to wait for more concrete news ...also even though it is signal free it should provide exit and entry ramps at important junctions/crossings that would require land to be acquired.

i just looked up the alignment on GE. i must say they did their homework on this.
2/6th of the ring is in the west. 4/6th of the ring is in the east.
most of the eastern ring is on roads that abut military, state govt , central govt or city govt., type properties (they even took the eastern bund of halsoor lake instead of th western bund).
1 segment on the west is through densely populated old city and might be the toughest. the other segment on the west side cuts though some dense regions but is planned to be manageable it aligns with minerva mills and other such large holdings. they chose raj kumar road instead of chord road.

tad expensive though. also, need to ask is this is needed at all. their argument is that at grade alignment needs dealing with about 50 intersections. say it is better to do steel ramps than grade separators at all 50 interesctions.
it sort of mars the city. could have been a 6 city lane boulevard type road with turning and merging lanes.

^^ Saw that Advt inviting expressions of Interest in HINDU, Trivandrum edition yesterday.

Wont be just 2x2 lane, the advt was saying 4 lane bi directional, so it is 8 lanes, isn't it?

And also 'no traffic signals'. BTW I too have Kronik's apprehensions regarding space.

Anyway great going Bangalore...:cheers:

How many of these grandiose projects every get started leave alone get done?? We keep hearing of this elevated exp'way and that "pipedream" way etc

did you have any particular thing in mind?

afaik, they have been thinking about inner ring road in the CBD for a long time > 2 years. the need for a transport road in the CBD and its approximate alignment was discused in the various BDA CDP drafts. The CDP got passed through various citizen groups. It even figures in some BMRDA docs.

What is new is the call for EoI on an elevated implementation of it.

if elevated it will be 2x2. they are just intrested in a transport road in the CBD.

How many of these grandiose projects every get started leave alone get done?? We keep hearing of this elevated exp'way and that "pipedream" way etc

Atleast one of them has already started...The elevated exp'way is under construction with the road below already widened in most places along the stretch and piers being laid. Its not as if no work is being done. Huge projects with land acquisitions aren't easy anywhere in India.

How many of these grandiose projects every get started leave alone get done?? We keep hearing of this elevated exp'way and that "pipedream" way etc

No man, things are started to happen now.Hope this will also see light soon.

Agilent Tech plans R&D centre (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/03/09/stories/2007030904720400.htm)


Agilent Technologies plans to set up a research and development centre in Bangalore as part of its expansion plans that would see it investing $35 million in India over two years.

"The Agilent Life Science Centre will host a multi-disciplinary team for advanced technology, focusing on chemical analysis, molecular biology and software for creating novel and complex scientific applications on its bio-analytical instrument and software platform," said Mr Chris Van Ingen, President, Agilent Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis (LSCA).

Agilent Technologies plans to ramp up its headcount to 2,000 by next year from the present 1,300 and would invest of $35 million in two years.

Bangalore next big city for chip design

Bangalore next big city for chip design
Business Standard

When Apple Computers wanted to unwire its mobile music player iPod,(make the iPod wireless headset compatible) the firm shopped around for the chip design and eventually located it at a little-known Bangalore-based firm called Impulsesoft. Today, Impulsesoft's technology is present in most of the wireless media players brought out by consumer electronics giants.

Impulsesoft represents a fast-growing community of firms engaged in chip designing. A chip or microprocessor is the most complex part of an electronic device and designing chips is at the top end of the software value chain.

Bangalore is now home to 70 of the 130 firms (including multinationals) engaged in chip design in India. That makes it not just way ahead of the rest of the Indian competition but one of the top global clusters in chip design ,comparable to Silicon Valley, Cambridge (UK) and Taiwan.

By another measure, number of VLSI (very large scale integration, as high-end chips are called) engineers working in a cluster, Bangalore is second to Silicon Valley and ahead of the rest. But given the pace at which chip design work is growing in Bangalore, even by this measure, it will be at the top spot in the not-too-distant future.

If you break up chip design work into design services (designing for others) and proprietory or innovative designing, Silicon Valley and Cambridge are clearly ahead. But global ranking by this measure also is slated to change.

Of the 70 firms designing chips in Bangalore, nearly 30 are captive offshore design centres of MNCs such as Intel, Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips). But, irrespective of where in the world an innovative chip design firm may be located, more and more of them are acquiring a Bangalore branch.

What is perhaps most significant, is a new tribe of innovative startups headed by entrepreneurs of Indian origin (the firms may be registered anywhere in the world) whose development work mostly goes on in Bangalore and which own the intellectual property they create. It is this tribe that is setting out to close the innovation gap after the services supremacy is fully established.

“As far as chip design services are considered, Bangalore is clearly way ahead of the rest of the clusters (Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Taiwan) in the world. Global players opt for chip design services offered by Bangalore firms for multiple reasons like talent availability and cost advantage,” says Atul Arora, President (Commercial Operations), ARM India, which provides tools and software for designing chips.

When compared to other chip design clusters of the world, Bangalore has the fastest growing community of VLSI engineers 15,000, next only to Silicon Valley in the US, which has 55 chip design services firms employing around 20,000 VLSI engineers.

The industry in the US is nearly two decades old whereas Bangalore entered this premier club less than a decade ago. “Most firms operating out of the Silicon Valley have also started their operations in Bangalore. This particular trend is on the rise and looking ahead, Bangalore can expect more chip design work and an increase in the number of engineers,” Arora points out.

The Cambridge (UK) cluster has 12 firms and employs around 2,000 VLSI engineers. Its work is focused on technology innovation. Taiwan, whose strength lies in manufacturing, has three firms offering chip design services. “Taiwan is looking for strategic pacts with Indian design firms. Taiwanese manufacturers intend to bank on Indian design expertise in the future,” Arora says

Last year, two delegations representing the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing companies were in Bangalore looking for tie-ups with chip design servicing firms.

India Semiconductor Association (ISA) President Poornima Shenoy attributes the rise in chip design work to the growing semiconductor ecosystem and availability of talent. “The fact that intellectual property (IP) protection is very strong in India is another major contributing factor. Design work will continue to flow into Bangalore,” she predicts.

Last year alone, the ISA, the apex body of the semiconductor industry, saw its membership double.

Newstrack

Landmark plans Rs 100 cr investment in India

To launch three-star Citymax hotel chain

EH Staff - Mumbai

After establishing its footprints in the Indian retail sector with Lifestyle, Max and Home Centre brands, Dubai-based Landmark Group is eyeing the hospitality pie. It has already instituted a separate company christened Citymax Hotels (India) and expects the first hotel to launch in the next 15 months.

Ravi Saxena, managing director of Citymax Hotels, said at press conference, "The hotel chain will be named Citymax and will be positioned in the three-star category. The room rates will be upwards of Rs 2,000. The hotels will be launched in different phases with about a dozen properties getting operational in phase I. We have already negotiated real estate deals for half-a-dozen projects and the first Citymax hotel will launch towards the latter half of 2008."

Although Saxena didn't disclose details about the location of the first hotel, company sources indicated that it will be in Bangalore's Whitefield area. The room inventory in Citymax hotels will be a minimum of 100 rooms, going up to 200 rooms and more on a case-to-case basis. The company will primarily look at 'mall-o-tels' besides standalone locations for its hotels in the country.

Taking the leasing route for procuring hospitality real-estate, the management will explore greenfield projects through joint venture and even management contracts as a strategy for its hospitality footprint across tier I and tier II cities. While acquisition as a strategy cannot be ruled out completely, the company may consider inorganic growth purely on a need-based situation. Some of the other locations identified by Citymax besides Bangalore include Mumbai, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, among others. With just over 1,00,000 hotel rooms to offer in the organised category, the country's hospitality sector is caught between a major demand and supply imbalance. Growing consistently at 15 to 20 per cent annually, the estimated short supply of hotel rooms and the projected demand for the coming three to five years is an additional 50,000 rooms, taking the grand total of additional hotel rooms required to 80,000 by 2010.

According to international hospitality consulting firm HVS International, there are over 150 hotel projects under various stages of development. This is expected to increase India's current hotel room supply by 30,000 rooms in the coming three to five years. However, the tourism ministry estimates that over 50,000 hotel rooms will be added in the next four to five years as around 300 hotel projects have been cleared by the ministry in various categories.

The Hindu
American aviation school lands in Bangalore

Staff Reporter

It plans to train over 1,000 Indian candidates by December

# Over 45 pilots trained by ASA already flying in Indian skies
# It has tied up with Kingfisher Airlines to recruit young pilots

BANGALORE: U.S.-based American School of Aviation (ASA) on Thursday launched its Bangalore operations by appointing AvOMATS, an aviation consultancy in Bangalore as its business associate.

Realising the huge demand for pilots in India with the opening up of the skies to private airlines, ASA has opened up a facility in Gurgaon near Delhi to offer preliminary training to aspiring pilots. They will then be offered academic and flying training for eight to 10 months at the ASA facility at Atwater, California.

Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday, Reny Kozman, vice-president, ASA, said, "Bangalore is, and will continue to be the national centre for aviation activities, with major brands of the private sector in the process of making Bangalore their main hub of activities."

Over 45 pilots trained by ASA were already flying in the Indian skies, and the ASA was planning to train over 1,000 Indian candidates by December, she said. Lalitha Krishnamurthy and Arvinder Singh, Directors of ASA India, said, "India has just 900-1,000 pilots to fly more than 250 aircraft, with six aircraft added every month. While almost a quarter of the pilots are foreigners, the scheduled airline sector alone needs at least 400 pilots a year, but gets barely 100 new pilots. The country needs about 5,000 pilots in the next 5-7 years according to industry estimates."

ASA offers the Indian Special Flight Training Program (ISFTP) and Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) Programme, which are of eight and 10 months duration respectively. These programmes are open to youth aged 17 and above who have completed the 10 Plus Two level with mathematics and physics. They should be proficient in speaking and understanding English, both generic and specific to the profession.

Mr. Singh said that ASA and Kingfisher Airlines had entered into an arrangement to recruit young pilots. For details, contact AvOMATS, 19, First Floor, 1st Cross, 10th `A' Main, Indiranagar II Stage, Bangalore 560 038, Ph: 080-4126 7243/44, 93420 90944 and 98862 12161.

Toyota set for $500m India push

By Peter Marsh in Bangalore
Published: 4/3/2007 | Last Updated: 4/3/2007 23:30 London Time

Toyota is preparing to invest up to $500m in quadrupling output at a plant in India, in an effort to boost its share of the country's car market to 10 per cent by 2010 from less than half that now.

The move comes as other big carmakers weigh their strategies for India, considered to represent one of the industry's biggest opportunities for expansion in the next decade.

Toyota, the world's second biggest carmaker, aims to expand its existing plant in Bangalore from an annual output of about 50,000 vehicles last year to about 200,000 by 2010-11. One option is for the new cars to be based on a new "ultra low cost" small vehicle being developed by Toyota engineers in Japan.

Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota's president, has identified the project as vital for Toyota as it attempts to use the group's recent growth in high-cost regions such as the US and Europe as a platform for making headway in emerging economies, including India, China and South American countries.

In these markets, demand for new cars in the next 15 years is likely to be much stronger than in the advanced economies, but with the focus on cheap, reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Toyota officials in India say the cars to be produced in the expanded Bangalore plant would probably carry a retail price of about R300,000 ($7,000) – less than half the price of the Corolla and Innova vehicles that the factory makes. Sales of these models have risen comparatively slowly in India.

"Whatever Toyota does in India will be based on a project [for small cars] being done elsewhere in the group. It would not make sense for us to go out on our own with a new vehicle different from what is likely to be made elsewhere," said an official at the Bangalore plant.

Toyota operates the plant as a joint venture with Kirloskar, an Indian engineering group, with the Japanese company having 89 per cent and Kirloskar the rest.

Toyota has said it wants to account for a 10th of the Indian market for cars and sports utility vehicles by 2010, at which point annual demand is expected to be about 2.1m vehicles, compared with about 1.4m in 2006.

Toyota officials recognise that if they are to have any chance of meeting this target they will have to make an announcement on expansion in India in the next few months. Other vehicle groups have already announced Indian expansion projects, based around new, small vehicles.

Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian company that is in fourth position in the Indian car business, last week announced a $900m factory in Chennai to make small cars in conjunction with Renault of France and Nissan of Japan.

ΠΗΓΗ: FT.com
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deccan Herald » News Update » Detailed Story

Karnataka poised to become global aerospace hub
Bangalore, UNI:

Karnataka is poised to emerge as a global aerospace hub with the potential to catalyse an all inclusive growth for the sector, according to a Confederation of Indian Industry study.

The study ''Vision 2015 - Karnataka, a global aerospace hub'' which was released at the annual meet of CII Karnataka today, indicated that the state had not only had a 67-year old history in the aviation-manufacturing sector, but also enjoyed the status of a national destination for aviation majors in view of its intrinsic strength in the field.

Besides a large base of precision engineering industries,

Karnataka was the home to several public and private aviation sector

players both in civilian and defence sector. It was the base for

design and development, maintenance, overhauling, ground handling

and ground sector equipments required for the sector, it said.

''If the industry in the state takes care of factors such as time-to-market, quality and skills and some extraneous factors such as the offset programme, then with its sizeable skilled resource pool backed up by its matured aerospace industrial environment, the state is all poised to address the requirement of the global aerospace industry,'' the report said.

Major players in the sector like Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Indian Space Research Organisation, National Aerospace Laboratories, DRDO Laboratories and a host of major IT companies in aerospace sector have significant presence in the city to fuel the growth, the report said adding that European aviation major EADS would be shortly opening a technology centre here for engineering services, software and technical publications.

It said that Bangalore was capable of providing design and development besides simulation, prototyping, re-engineering and maintenance and testing services.

Other areas suitable for outsourcing included navigation systems, air control management systems, high level aeronautical system design, control system design, cockpit equipment support software, interior design and ergonomics.

Most of the global aerospace industries were looking towards India as an outsourcing hub for development of technology. According to a report, the outsourcing market in the aerospace industry was around 155 million dollars and this would touch one billion dollars by 2009-10.

By 2020 India's offshore market could go up to three billlion dollars according to a Nasscomn-Booz Allen Hamilton analysis.

Kansai Paint to build factory in Bangalore
By Andrew Mollet
9 March, 2007
Source: Automotive World

Japan's Kansai Paint Co. is to build a new plant in southern India to better supply the factories of Japanese OEMs in the country.

The new Bangalore plant will be able to turn out 6,000 tons of paint each month. It will primarily make automotive paint...

Kansai Paint to build factory in Bangalore
By Andrew Mollet
9 March, 2007
Source: Automotive World

Japan's Kansai Paint Co. is to build a new plant in southern India to better supply the factories of Japanese OEMs in the country.

The new Bangalore plant will be able to turn out 6,000 tons of paint each month. It will primarily make automotive paint...

OG,
do you know if they'll have water treatment facilities?

30 storey Northstar tower u/c
http://www.brigadegroup.com/apartments/gateway/status_Photos.htm

http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/3264/northstarblrae4.jpg

Brigade Metropolis - some of the 20 storey blocks u/c

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9933/blrconstsa3.jpg

Prestige Shantiniketan - some blocks u/c

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/7140/blrconst1dc6.jpg

Some blocks of HM World city u/c

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/9245/blrconst4rv7.jpg

sun woohoo!,cool update:)

Brigade Metropolis - some of the 20 storey blocks u/c

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9933/blrconstsa3.jpg

Very English:) They have taken a piece out of London as far as the names are concerned

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/09/stories/2007030911870400.htm
Surplus land to be auctioned
The land near Devanahalli airport is expected to fetch Rs. 2,000 crore

Bangalore: Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya has said that the State Cabinet has decided to sell through public auction 408 acres of surplus land vested with the Bangalore International Airport Authority at Devanahalli, about 35 km from Bangalore. Of the total land acquired for the international airport, 408 acres were now in excess following what has been stated as a re-alignment of the main runway.

Speaking to presspersons on Thursday, Dr. Acharya said with several vested interests having an eye on the precious property (excess land), the Government decided to frame guidelines for the sale of it.

The 408 acres would be split into relatively small pieces of 25 acres and 50 acres and put to auction. The expectation of the Government was that it would net revenue of not less than Rs. 2,000 crore and this would be utilised for other development activities.

The Government had earlier contemplated to give the land on long-term lease to interested parties, but with difficulties in getting back its properties, the Government had thought it fit to dispose of the property...

Work on Expressway to international airport to start shortly in Bangalore (http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/10/stories/2007031024070500.htm)

____________________________________________________
Tendering process to be completed in the next two months

# Road will facilitate high-speed traffic between city and airport
# State has notified 638.10 acres to be acquired for road
_____________________________________________________

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4695/2007031024070501ah5.jpg


BANGALORE: Work on the much-awaited six-lane road to the international airport at Devanahalli will commence shortly. On March 3, the Government notified 638.10 acres in 18 villages to be acquired for constructing the 21-km expressway that will facilitate high-speed traffic between the city and the airport.

The expressway connecting Bangalore to the international airport at Devanahalli from the Outer Ring Road, near Horamavu, will pass through Bangalore North, Bangalore East and Devanahalli taluks in Bangalore Urban district.

Sources in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) told The Hindu that the tendering process would be completed within the next two months, and the Rs. 400-crore project would be completed within 15 months of awarding the contract.

Tentatively, the expressway to the international airport from the Outer Ring Road would be completed by September 2008.

The international airport is likely to become operational in April 2008.

The notification follows the completion of survey, Techno-Economic Feasibility Report and fixing the alignment of the road.

Passenger traffic

The process of identifying the developer would be completed shortly.

The City Infrastructure Review Committee had decided to launch the project anticipating passenger traffic between 10 and 12 million when the international airport would become fully functional. BMRDA is the nodal agency for the project while the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. will identify the developer.

Project details

The whole project would comprise two interchanges at the start of project road near the ORR and the end of the project road near the proposed international airport approach road (21 km), one flyover of four lane bi-directional divided carriageway and around 30 vehicular-cum-pedestrian underpasses. These underpasses at all existing major and minor crossroads is to ensure connectivity and facilitate crossing of traffic and pedestrians at frequent intervals.

Besides, full cloverleaf type interchange has been proposed at the proposed peripheral road intersection along with two modern fully automatic toll plazas, high traffic management system, two fuelling stations, two truck bays and others.

Phase-1
In Phase-1, the expressway comprises four lane bi-directional divided elevated road from 0 km to two km, and further up to the airport it will be a grade six lane divided carriageway.

Phase-2
In Phase-2, additional four-lane bi-directional divided elevated road would be constructed between 0 km and two km and further, the existing six-lane bi-directional divided carriageway will be widened to eight-lane divided carriageway.
way to go Bangaluru!

Babji,

Originally Posted by indiansunite View Post
Work on Expressway to international airport to start shortly in Bangalore

A great news for IT industry and visitors to Bangalore

OG,
do you know if they'll have water treatment facilities?

Vadi,

Not sure, the report does not mention anything on the treatment plant. Being and Environmental Engineer, I would suggest that they have to get an permit from KSPCB to operate the plant. The current chairman Dr. Sharat Chandra is doing good job in setting-up the strategy and transparency in the KSPCB as a whole. It's just my view after an discussion with him during my visit to Bangalore.

eSkye opens development center in Bangalore,India

Mr. Daya Papegowda Joins eSkye Solutions from IBM as General Manager & Director of Development for eSkye India. Center to Support eSkye's Global Growth and New Product Development. Development center expected to experience significant growth over the next 18 months

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Bangalore, Karnataka, IND, 2007-03-12 11:00:00 (IndiaPRwire.com)
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eSkye Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of software applications and services for the global beverage industry, today announced the formation of eSkye Software Private Ltd. in India. eSkye India is based in the business center of the city of Bangalore, in Southern India.

The company opened the development center to support the rapid expansion of its professional service business. In addition, the center in India will help ensure eSkye Solution clients have 24 by 7 support. eSkye already provides services to hundreds of wineries and beverage alcohol distributors across the Americas, The Middle East and Asia using its existing delivery centers in Indiana and California.

“As we expand our operations into India, we will continue to invest in infrastructure & people, to provide high quality services to our clients, with increased value”, said J. Smoke Wallin, founder, Chairman & founder of eSkye on his recent visit to Bangalore in January 2007.

eSkye’s Bangalore operation is up and running with a core team made of up of members of the eSkye U.S. team who have relocated and new local Indian hires. The Company expects to grow its India operations significantly over the next 18 months. “eSkye India is a critical component of our growth strategy. We will continue employing and selectively hiring the best talent in the country and train them extensively. The quality of our people has been and will continue to be the key to our success. India has excellent universities and talent which will provide our fuel for growth in the future.” said Dayananda Papegowda, General Manager and Director of Development of eSkye India.

Mr. Daya Papegowda joins eSkye from IBM where he served as a Senior IT architect with IBM SOA and eBusiness group in North America. He has extensive knowledge on e-business architectures involving business partner and enterprise application integration, and techniques to accelerate the system development lifecycle through the use of development life cycle methodologies. Prior to IBM, Mr. Papegowda was a senior Technical Manager with Coca-Cola and has delivered eBusiness solutions integrating their US based B2B systems and business domains across continents and reaching worldwide consumer audience through different medias using the web as the channel. Dayananda Papegowda has over 15 years of experience in the information technology field with a broad array of management in system and application architectures. Her experience includes business and technical consulting at the enterprise and solution architecture levels, defining strategic and tactical architectural solutions, planning and management across the entire system development life cycle, and implementation of the resulting systems and applications. Daya has a Masters in Computer Science, Fitchburg State in Massachusetts and earned his Bachelor of Science in Computers, at the University of Mysore, in India. He is also a PMI certified Project Management Professional.

“I’m pleased Daya chose to join eSkye from IBM and lead our growth into India. This is another example of our commitment to backing talented individuals in an entrepreneurial environment” said J. Smoke Wallin. He continued, “eSkye is one of the rare technology companies that survived the tech boom and bust successfully. The key has been our determined and talented people, and our relentless focus on delivering high value-added solutions to the beverage space.”

The company is now accepting resumes from experienced applicants, who can apply for positions by sending resumes to http://www.eskyesolutions.com/careers/Careers.asp. The eSkye development center has openings for technical professionals with expertise in product development, software engineering and other IT functions. With locations in Glen Ellen, CA, Indianapolis, IN and employees based in New Zealand, Maine, Florida, and Arizona, eSkye is noted for its exceptional work environments and its commitment to both employees and community.

- End -

About eSkye Solutions

eSkye invents, develops, markets and deploys leading edge software applications and services for the global beverage industry. eSkye counts many of the world’s leading brand owners and distributors as clients including 5 of the top 20 world wineries, some top ten U.S. wine & spirits distributors and 100s of smaller beverage clients. Our production solutions enable brand owners to maximize product quality by efficiently managing costs, tracking all steps in the production process, and ensuring compliance with the many statutory reporting requirements. Our hosted Software Services efficiently connect brand owners with customers electronically to enable effective commerce and collaboration including retail account level depletion reporting, price synchronization & analysis. For more information visit www.eskyesolutions.com.

Sant Chatwal to open 7-star hotel chain in India

New Delhi, March 12. (PTI): Sant Singh Chatwal, a sikh Indian-American businessman, will invest Rs 4,500 crore by 2009 for setting up a chain of hotels, including 7-star, in India.

All hotels would be state-of-the-art with different food restaurants, discotheques and conference rooms. "We want to create convention centres with a capacity for 2,000-3,000 people in every hotel," Chatwal, President and CEO of Hampshire Hotels and Resorts (HHR), told PTI.

"We are doing the master planning for phase-I, which includes high-end 7-star hotels in major cities like Delhi/Noida, Mumbai and Bangalore and dream hotels in Kochi, Hyderabad and Chennai," he said.

"India is a virgin country in the hospitality sector... I would like to explore the potential here," said Chatwal.

Elaborating on the business plans, he said he has already acquired land in Bangalore, Noida, Kochi and Hyderabad while negotiations are on in Mumbai and Chennai.

HHR owns hotels in the US, UK and Thailand with over 2,500 rooms in Manhattan. Along with this, the $1.5 billion group has set up Bombay Palace locations around the world including Montreal, Toronto, New York, Washington, Houston, Budapest and Kuala Lumpur.

Chatwal is a trustee of former US President Bill Clinton's William Clinton Foundation, which focuses on global issues of health, security, economic empowerment (HIV/AIDS initiative).

On the funding plans of the project, Chatwal said while 35 per cent would be through capital equity, 65 per cent would be debt. "Equity would be funded by internal accruals. In fact, land has been purchased through equity capital only.

"We are in discussions with financial institutions and banks for the loan component and that should not be a problem at all. As and when funds are required, debts would be raised," he said, adding all the hotels in phase-I would be completed and operational in 2009 before the Commonwealth games.

Chatwal, also known for hosting an extravagant wedding in India for his son Vikram in 2006, said that he would be monitoring the execution of all his projects and make frequent visits to India.

"I would be travelling to India with my team of architects, designers and other members to look after the projects," he said.

The financial closure (tying up of all finances) would be completed within 60-90 days.

Foundation stone for the first hotel would be laid in May this year in Kochi followed by other sites, he said.

VIA Establishes SAARC Regional Hub in Bangalore
IT News Online Staff
2007-03-11

VIA Technologies Inc, the Taiwanese innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, has established its new regional office in Bangalore, which will be responsible for further expanding the company's presence in India and other countries within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

"India is the fastest growing economy after China and with its world class software industry is emerging as leading power in the global IT industry," said Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies Inc. "The establishment of our regional marketing and innovation hub in Bangalore is a clear indication of our long-term commitment to this highly important market."

The company said that with its low power, small footprint VIA C7 processor, it is already the leading supplier of x86 CPUs for the rapidly growing Thin Client (centrally managed computers) market and through the new regional office plans to strengthen ties with leading Indian and MNC Thin Client makers such as HCL, VXL, HP, Neoware, Wyse and GIGABYTE to further boost the development of the market.

"Thin Clients represent an exciting opportunity for VIA in India, and we expect the market to reach 1.25 million units by the end of 2010." said Sanjay Peer, Director, Channel Sales, India and SAARC. "With our proven technology leadership and strong relationships with leading global and local Thin Client vendors our domestic market share already exceeds 60%, and Thin Clients based around our processor platforms have helped banks, insurance companies, and other financial and educational institutes reduce costs on their basic IT infrastructure while increasing the productivity of the users."

In addition to the Thin Client market, the new VIA regional office will also focus on increasing penetration of the PC space through the introduction of a new line of VIA pc-1 mainboards that will be made available throughout India through local distribution partners backed up by a national service network.

"We are seeing an increasing demand for VIA pc-1 motherboards from customers throughout India looking for highly robust, energy efficient PCs that can run in even the toughest rural environments," said Peer. "Our goal is to offer consistent product availability and world-class after-sales support to our local customers through association with partners such as Accell Frontline. We are in the advanced stage of negotiations with various Indian, SAARC and Middle East markets for local distribution tie-ups for mainboards. The same would be announced in coming weeks."

The VIA Regional Office will also work on developing business in other emerging verticals such as Set Top Boxes, Broadband Access and Digital Entertainment devices, and Medical Diagnostic, POS (Point of Sales) and Video Surveillance solutions.
AXILL ADS

"We are seeing exciting new innovations that marry India's world class software expertise with our processor platforms," said Peer. "The opening of the VIA regional office will enable us to work much more closely with our local partners in vertical markets in the future."

Following the establishment of the regional office in Bangalore, VIA plans to build a presence in six major metros across India within the next six months.

"This should help us to get even closer to our partners and customers across the country," added Peer.

Core Ring Road to get on Track

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2341/bangalorerrgk7.jpg

via TOI

Bristol-Myers enters into pact with Biocon, Accenture

New Delhi, March 14: In order to expand its research and development capabilities in the country, global pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb company will invest about USD 300 million over eight years through its agreements with Biocon and Accenture.

Under the agreement entered by Bristol-Myers Squibb with Biocon, it will work with its subsidiary Syngene International to establish a research facility in Bangalore housing more than 400 scientists to help advance the global company's discovery and early drug development, a company statement said.

In a separate multi-year agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb would expand its relationship with Accenture to include support for clinical data, document management, pharmacovigilance and scientific writing functions in India.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb is planning to make financial investment in India of about 300 million dollars over a period eight years, through its agreement with Biocon and Accenture," sources said.

Accenture would also provide maintenance and support for R&D information systems and Bristol-Myers Squibb would utilize its life science centers for excellence in Bangalore and Chennai, which follow industry accepted operational practices and international standards in clinical area.

"This broad expansion of R&D in India will allow us to grow competitively while maintaining our industry-leading position in productivity and innovation," Bristol-Myers Squibb executive vice president Elliott Sigal said.

Working with Biocon and Accenture, two well-respected and valued partners, Bristol-Myers Squibb will continue to access world-class talent to deliver and grow our robust product pipeline, Sigal said.

Bristol-Myers Squibb would significantly increase the scope of its existing relationship with Biocon through the agreement, to further develop integrated capabilities in India, it said.

"We are delighted to announce this one-of-a-kind discovery research partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb, a recognized global healthcare leader.

The new research facility marks a significant step forward in Biocon and Syngenes evolution as a valuable partner to the global pharmaceutical industry," Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Bureau Report

I am all in favor of Infrastructure development however not sure about Lotto, difficult to answer in terms of Economics i.e. it's an opportunity cost or sacrifice??

Lotto 6/49 for India
Tue, March 13 2007

Lotto 649By Mata Press Service

Vancouver based developer Royal Indian Raj International Corporation has acquired a 10 per cent stake in a lottery operation as part of its efforts to get into the India’s gambling industry.

Manoj Benjamin, Chairman and CEO of Royal Indian Raj International Corporation (RIRIC), stated, “While our core business is large scale residential, commercial and institutional development, we decided to invest in the lottery business through Global, enabling us to be in a position to ultimately bid on a national lottery for India.”

Global Lottery Corporation is hoping the partnership will allow it to ride Royal India Raj’s coattails in the Asian markets. The ‘Whole World Lottery Guide’ estimates that annual turnover for India is $8 billion, placing it in the world’s top six lottery nations. The company said there is no viable competitor in the market and has already made key partnerships with Indian industrialists that are being developed on a State-by-State basis.

In Karnataka state, RIRIC partnered with the Khoday Group, the largest liquor distillers in India while In Maharashtra state, RIRIC has entered into negotiations for partnership with the Ispat Group, the 8th largest steel-maker in the world and a 50% owner of Star TV with Rupert Murdoch in India.

“The excitement of the 6/49 format, large potential winnings and a media transparent computerized system places RIRIC in a position of great opportunity in one of the world’s fastest growth sectors located in one of the world’s largest nations.”

The Lotto plan is in line with the company’s fundamental philosophy of acting as a conduit of proven advanced technologies into India. The company said it will distinguish itself by providing a system which will be managed with integrity thus both protecting the consumers while managing the profits of the system, thereby paving the way for the infusion of funds into government programs needed to enhance healthcare, education, and other social programs.

The RIRIC consortium is in the position of introducing socially conscious lottery systems like Lotto 6/49/Power Ball to the nation of India.

The shared revenues from the lotteries enable the government to realize many social programs within its mandate that would otherwise be unaffordable, as they look to innovative means to fund government ministries.

Gambling remains largely frowned on by Indian society, although the country has long had a horseracing culture. One media report said that in recent years, hotel chains have lobbied to change the law, pointing out that tourists often go instead to Nepal and Sri Lanka, where gambling is permitted.

The Lotto 6/49 plan also comes at a time when some Indian states like Goa are plunging headlong to make a grab for gambling dollars.

The Indian beach paradise is planning to allow 10 more floating casinos to operate offshore. There are also signs that Indian entrepreneurs are quietly eroding the strict Indian laws governing gaming. This month the inaugural Asian Poker Classic attracted a bevy of stars to Goa with a guaranteed US$1 million prize pool. The event marked poker’s arrival to the big time in India. RIRIC said the Indian nation has been closed to the idea of a computerized lottery in the past due to excessive fraud in the paper lottery schemes; the country is now open to the idea, due in part to the revenues that will be generated to support social causes.

Benjamin, a low-profile Indo-Canadian tycoon and recent inductee into “Business and Economy Magazine’s” 100 Most Influential People of 2007 List, hit the headlines a few years ago when he embarked on what was described as Asia’s largest real estate development--a new C$3 billion Indian smart city located in an area three times the size of Stanley Park. The project was called Royal Garden City in Bangalore.

It is currently selling Phase I of the project in Bangalore. Phase II and III will hit the markets in Q2 of 2007 as will its Royal Garden Villas and Resorts Hyderabad development situated on 450 acres near the new Hyderabad International Airport.

The family-owned company has been quietly assembling large parcels of land in India and securing global contacts over the past decade. The Bangalore development is expected to cash in on the booming economy of Bangalore--the outsourcing capital of the world, overseas Indians returning home and the burgeoning middle-class in the subcontinent.

When completed, the Royal Garden City in Bangalore is expected to be the base for between 300,000 and 500,000 people who will live, work and play on 11.4 million square feet that will include 35,000 residential units, a central business district, an industrial district, an entertainment district, parks, restaurants, shopping, educational facilities, and civic amenities. The retail value of the proposed Internet-friendly city, which is to be located about 15 miles from downtown Bangalore and three miles from the new Bangalore International Airport, is expected to top US$9 billion when fully completed in 2015. The city is to have bungalows, townhouses and apartments in enclaves modeled after luxurious western subdivisions with names like “Venice”, “Hamptons” and “Soho”. Benjamin’s Royal Indian Raj recently got approval for Foreign Direct investments for the Bangalore project from the Indian government, which last year lifted restrictions on foreign ownership of land. Not much is in the public domain about the B
enjamins who have kept a low profile until recently. Manoj Benjamin was only seven when dad Collins Benjamin left India for Canada in 1969 and got into a variety of businesses in Atlantic Canada.

In 1970 he launched his career in real estate establishing Benjamin Real Estate in Dartmouth, N.S., Sinma Investments Ltd. in Halifax, N.S., Shammah Investments Ltd. in Dartmouth, N.S. and CarriageLane Fine Homes Ltd. in Vancouver, BC.

In the early 90s, as India beckoned foreign investors by opening up its economy, the Benjamins began thinking about Royal Indian Raj, which was to be a vehicle with a specific India focus.

Around this time the Benjamins moved to Vancouver where they developed several housing projects.

Royal Indian Raj was incorporated in 1999 in Nevada, U.S. It is now headquartered on Water Street in Vancouver and has offices in India and Britain.

Manoj Benjamin is listed on the company website as being a self-made millionaire by the time he was 24.

Volvo selects Karnataka to set up bus manufacturing unit
Our corporate bureau
14 March 2007

Hyderabad: Sweden-based bus manufacturer Volvo has decided to set up its bus body-building unit in Karnataka instead of Andhra Pradesh, which had offered the bus giant a number of incentives.

Volvo decided on Karnataka since Bangalore already has a strong infrastructure in bus bodybuilding.

Volvo was earlier outsourcing the bodybuilding in India to a Bangalore-based company, Jaico Automobiles (Azad Group).

While engine parts and chasis are manufactured in Sweden, bodybuilding was done in the outsourcing unit.

However, with a number of complaints coming in on defects in structural design, defective air-conditioning against the buses, the send this article to a friend company decided to set up its own bus body building unit in the country.

Volvo says it opted for Karnataka as it already has a strong infrastructure for bodybuilding units.

Knowledge City for real
The Times of India

Bangalore: The contract for developing the 10,000-acre Knowledge City in Bidadi is expected to be awarded in a week’s time, Karnataka IT & BT secretary M N Vidyashankar told TOI on Wednesday.
Vidyashankar, who was at the opening of the IT services facility of Supervalu Inc, a $44-billion US grocery chain, said tenders have been called for building a 8-lane highway between this Knowledge City and the upcoming airport in Devanahalli.
The Rs 50,000-crore Bidadi project saw 32 bids, of which 24 were shortlisted. These include two bids by the Mukesh Ambani Group — one through Reliance Utilities and Power and the other as part of a consortium led by Bangalore-based Prestige Group — and a bid by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy. Other bidders include the likes of DLF, IL&FS, Gammon India and Unitech, many of them in partnership with global construction and real estate majors.
The township is expected to meet space requirements of the IT industry in Karnataka for 10 years. It will also have the capacity to house 7.5 lakh people. One of the conditions imposed on companies taking space in the city will be to mandate employees to stay in the complex. This would ensure that Bangalore does not become further congested. The township will also have hospitals, shopping malls, schools and other required amenities.
The Bidadi township is the first of the five integrated townships that the state government is planning to set up around Bangalore. The other locations are Nandagudi in Hoskote taluk, Kasaba in Ramanagaram, Solur in Magadi and Sathanooru in Kanakapura taluk.
While the government will acquire the land, the private partner in each case is expected to prepare the draft masterplan, have it approved by the government, and then finance and develop the internal infrastructure.
The total amount of land required for all five townships is 60,961 acres. Farmers are already protesting acquisition of land in Bidadi for the Knowledge City, but the government appears confident the issue will be resolved. Vidyashankar says the land for the first phase will be handed over to the private partner in April.
Location of township Bidadi (Ramanagaram taluk). — 9,684 acres Nandagudi (Hoskote taluk) — 18,507 acres Kasaba (Ramanagaram taluk) — 4,013 acres
Solur (Magadi taluk) — 12,525 acres
Sathanooru (Kanakapura taluk) — 16,232 acres

Knowledge City for real
The Times of India

Bangalore: The contract for developing the 10,000-acre Knowledge City in Bidadi is expected to be awarded in a week’s time, Karnataka IT & BT secretary M N Vidyashankar told TOI on Wednesday.
Vidyashankar, who was at the opening of the IT services facility of Supervalu Inc, a $44-billion US grocery chain, said tenders have been called for building a 8-lane highway between this Knowledge City and the upcoming airport in Devanahalli.
The Rs 50,000-crore Bidadi project saw 32 bids, of which 24 were shortlisted. These include two bids by the Mukesh Ambani Group — one through Reliance Utilities and Power and the other as part of a consortium led by Bangalore-based Prestige Group — and a bid by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy. Other bidders include the likes of DLF, IL&FS, Gammon India and Unitech, many of them in partnership with global construction and real estate majors.
The township is expected to meet space requirements of the IT industry in Karnataka for 10 years. It will also have the capacity to house 7.5 lakh people. One of the conditions imposed on companies taking space in the city will be to mandate employees to stay in the complex. This would ensure that Bangalore does not become further congested. The township will also have hospitals, shopping malls, schools and other required amenities.
The Bidadi township is the first of the five integrated townships that the state government is planning to set up around Bangalore. The other locations are Nandagudi in Hoskote taluk, Kasaba in Ramanagaram, Solur in Magadi and Sathanooru in Kanakapura taluk.
While the government will acquire the land, the private partner in each case is expected to prepare the draft masterplan, have it approved by the government, and then finance and develop the internal infrastructure.
The total amount of land required for all five townships is 60,961 acres. Farmers are already protesting acquisition of land in Bidadi for the Knowledge City, but the government appears confident the issue will be resolved. Vidyashankar says the land for the first phase will be handed over to the private partner in April.
Location of township Bidadi (Ramanagaram taluk). — 9,684 acres Nandagudi (Hoskote taluk) — 18,507 acres Kasaba (Ramanagaram taluk) — 4,013 acres
Solur (Magadi taluk) — 12,525 acres
Sathanooru (Kanakapura taluk) — 16,232 acres


Great news for Bangalore:) Self sustained townships will go a long way in decongesting major cities. Will hv to watch how the land acqusition goes on

EVE Opens Field Operations in India
(2007-03-15)
By: Copyright Business Wire 2007 , Business Wire

EVE today announced the formation of EVE Design Automation Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary based in Bangalore, India, known as EVE DA.

EVE DA is headed by Montu Makadia (Mak), an experienced sales executive who commands strong knowledge of the Indian market. It will market and support the ZeBu (for "zero bugs") hardware-assisted verification platforms of accelerators, emulators and field programmable gate array (FPGA) prototypes.

"The formation of EVE DA continues our strategic expansion into international markets," says Dr. Luc Burgun, EVE's chief executive officer (CEO) and president. "Our ZeBu family has been successfully adopted in North America, Japan, Korea and Europe, and we expect a similar pattern in the Indian market. With its push into the digital media, telecommunications and mobile communications markets, India presents a tremendous growth opportunity for EVE."

"I have been impressed with EVE and the ZeBu product line," remarks Montu. "The ZeBu family is the best hardware-assisted verification solution currently available. Our customers in India can now cost effectively take advantage of this outstanding product to thoroughly verify hardware and embedded software in complex system on chip designs at close to actual speed."

About EVE

EVE offers the broadest range of hardware-assisted verification solutions on the market, from acceleration to fast emulation and prototyping with the most cycles per dollar. EVE products lead to a significant shortening of the overall verification cycle of complex integrated circuits and electronic systems design. EVE products also work in conjunction with popular Verilog and VHDL-based software simulators from Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics. Its headquarters in the United States is San Jose, Calif. Telephone: (408) 881-0440. Fax: (408) 904-5800. Its corporate headquarters is located in Palaiseau, France. Telephone: (33) 1 64.53.27.30. Fax: (33) 1 64.53.27.40. Email: info@eve-team.com. Website: http://www.eve-team.com.

EVE acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services.


EVE Lauro Rizzatti, 408-881-0440 CEO of EVE USA lauro@eve-team.com or Public Relations for EVE Nanette Collins, 617-437-1822 nanette@nvc.com

(c)2007 Business Wire. All of the news releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws, treaties and conventions. Information contained in the releases is furnished by Business Wire's members, who warrant that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. All reproduction, other than for an individual user's personal reference, is prohibited without prior written permission.

http://aiany.org/eOCULUS/2006/images/0516/HOK-Bangalore.jpg

INDIA: Boston Globe to be Bangalored

Newspaper labor union protests publication's outsourcing of advertising, circulation jobs

Times of India
Friday, March 16, 2007

By Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington --- Outsourcing of jobs to India has been making news in the U.S for some time now. But what happens when the media which has been reporting this news finds the jobs of some of their colleagues are being outsourced?

Well, some Bostonians have been Bangalored, and they have gone ballistic.

The 1000-strong labor union at the Boston Globe newspaper began a heated campaign this week against their publication (owned by the New York Times Company) by launching an ad campaign in a rival newspaper protesting the outsourcing of their work to India.

"It's the Boston Globe, not the Bangalore Globe!" is the plaintive cry in an ad issued by the union in the Boston Herald on Monday, after the Globe declined to run the ad. The union has also issued radio ads.

The spat began after the New York Times Company decided recently to cut 120 jobs at the Globe and outsource the work of some 50 personnel in the advertising and circulation departments to Bangalore.

The union says the cuts came despite their agreeing to a partial wage freeze and significant cuts in health care benefits. The NYT Company says the job cuts and offshoring of some work are necessary for the financial health of the paper.

The union isn't convinced, and in fact, it issued the scarifying 'loss of privacy' warning to subscribers.

"By outsourcing our work, The Boston Globe & New York Times Co. are sending a message that they no longer care enough to retain the very best people to handle customer accounts and client relationships," the ad said, cautioning readers that "Further, billing and account information will now be shipped overseas to Bangalore, India, putting customers' most vital information at risk."

It asked Bostonians to phone the Globe at a number it provided to protest the outsourcing move.

While thousands of workers across America have lost jobs because of outsourcing and have faded quietly from the scene, the newspaper union has managed to galvanize some public support. Last month, the Boston City Council passed a resolution calling the move to outsource jobs at to India as "deplorable."

Globe isn't the first media company to feel the outsourcing cut. There has been considerable disquiet in Reuters over the rapid growth of the company's operations in Bangalore, where Indian reporters cull news from financial statements and quarterly and annual reports of US companies.

American companies continue to look at cutting costs and improving their bottom line by outsourcing back room functions such as pay roll and subscription services -- anything that can be done on the phone and computer over long distance. Now, the media which reports this trend hasn't been spared either.

Date Posted: 3/16/2007

INDIA: Boston Globe to be Bangalored

Newspaper labor union protests publication's outsourcing of advertising, circulation jobs

Times of India
Friday, March 16, 2007

By Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington --- Outsourcing of jobs to India has been making news in the U.S for some time now. But what happens when the media which has been reporting this news finds the jobs of some of their colleagues are being outsourced?

Well, some Bostonians have been Bangalored, and they have gone ballistic.

The 1000-strong labor union at the Boston Globe newspaper began a heated campaign this week against their publication (owned by the New York Times Company) by launching an ad campaign in a rival newspaper protesting the outsourcing of their work to India.

"It's the Boston Globe, not the Bangalore Globe!" is the plaintive cry in an ad issued by the union in the Boston Herald on Monday, after the Globe declined to run the ad. The union has also issued radio ads.

The spat began after the New York Times Company decided recently to cut 120 jobs at the Globe and outsource the work of some 50 personnel in the advertising and circulation departments to Bangalore.

The union says the cuts came despite their agreeing to a partial wage freeze and significant cuts in health care benefits. The NYT Company says the job cuts and offshoring of some work are necessary for the financial health of the paper.

The union isn't convinced, and in fact, it issued the scarifying 'loss of privacy' warning to subscribers.

"By outsourcing our work, The Boston Globe & New York Times Co. are sending a message that they no longer care enough to retain the very best people to handle customer accounts and client relationships," the ad said, cautioning readers that "Further, billing and account information will now be shipped overseas to Bangalore, India, putting customers' most vital information at risk."

It asked Bostonians to phone the Globe at a number it provided to protest the outsourcing move.

While thousands of workers across America have lost jobs because of outsourcing and have faded quietly from the scene, the newspaper union has managed to galvanize some public support. Last month, the Boston City Council passed a resolution calling the move to outsource jobs at to India as "deplorable."

Globe isn't the first media company to feel the outsourcing cut. There has been considerable disquiet in Reuters over the rapid growth of the company's operations in Bangalore, where Indian reporters cull news from financial statements and quarterly and annual reports of US companies.

American companies continue to look at cutting costs and improving their bottom line by outsourcing back room functions such as pay roll and subscription services -- anything that can be done on the phone and computer over long distance. Now, the media which reports this trend hasn't been spared either.

Date Posted: 3/16/2007

Being bangalored has not lost its sheen and contains to be a popular word in the global lexicon:)

^^ :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

From our correspondent, Khaleej Times, 18 March 2007


BANGALORE — The state government is planning to construct a 3.5-km high-speed four-lane underground tunnel in Bangalore to ease traffic congestion in the northern corridor of the burgeoning city.

The government has sanctioned Rs 500million to the Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation as a first step for constructing the underground tunnel from Minsk Square to BDA office near the Cauvery junction in the city.

“A team of engineers is preparing a detailed project report on making this an engineering marvel,’’ a government official said.

INDIA: Boston Globe to be Bangalored

Newspaper labor union protests publication's outsourcing of advertising, circulation jobs

Times of India
Friday, March 16, 2007

By Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington --- Outsourcing of jobs to India has been making news in the U.S for some time now. But what happens when the media which has been reporting this news finds the jobs of some of their colleagues are being outsourced?

Well, some Bostonians have been Bangalored, and they have gone ballistic.

The 1000-strong labor union at the Boston Globe newspaper began a heated campaign this week against their publication (owned by the New York Times Company) by launching an ad campaign in a rival newspaper protesting the outsourcing of their work to India.

"It's the Boston Globe, not the Bangalore Globe!" is the plaintive cry in an ad issued by the union in the Boston Herald on Monday, after the Globe declined to run the ad. The union has also issued radio ads.

The spat began after the New York Times Company decided recently to cut 120 jobs at the Globe and outsource the work of some 50 personnel in the advertising and circulation departments to Bangalore.

The union says the cuts came despite their agreeing to a partial wage freeze and significant cuts in health care benefits. The NYT Company says the job cuts and offshoring of some work are necessary for the financial health of the paper.

The union isn't convinced, and in fact, it issued the scarifying 'loss of privacy' warning to subscribers.

"By outsourcing our work, The Boston Globe & New York Times Co. are sending a message that they no longer care enough to retain the very best people to handle customer accounts and client relationships," the ad said, cautioning readers that "Further, billing and account information will now be shipped overseas to Bangalore, India, putting customers' most vital information at risk."

It asked Bostonians to phone the Globe at a number it provided to protest the outsourcing move.

While thousands of workers across America have lost jobs because of outsourcing and have faded quietly from the scene, the newspaper union has managed to galvanize some public support. Last month, the Boston City Council passed a resolution calling the move to outsource jobs at to India as "deplorable."

Globe isn't the first media company to feel the outsourcing cut. There has been considerable disquiet in Reuters over the rapid growth of the company's operations in Bangalore, where Indian reporters cull news from financial statements and quarterly and annual reports of US companies.

American companies continue to look at cutting costs and improving their bottom line by outsourcing back room functions such as pay roll and subscription services -- anything that can be done on the phone and computer over long distance. Now, the media which reports this trend hasn't been spared either.

Date Posted: 3/16/2007

ah sweet globalization.

INDIA: Boston Globe to be Bangalored

Newspaper labor union protests publication's outsourcing of advertising, circulation jobs

Times of India
Friday, March 16, 2007

By Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington --- Outsourcing of jobs to India has been making news in the U.S for some time now. But what happens when the media which has been reporting this news finds the jobs of some of their colleagues are being outsourced?

Well, some Bostonians have been Bangalored, and they have gone ballistic.

The 1000-strong labor union at the Boston Globe newspaper began a heated campaign this week against their publication (owned by the New York Times Company) by launching an ad campaign in a rival newspaper protesting the outsourcing of their work to India.

"It's the Boston Globe, not the Bangalore Globe!" is the plaintive cry in an ad issued by the union in the Boston Herald on Monday, after the Globe declined to run the ad. The union has also issued radio ads.

The spat began after the New York Times Company decided recently to cut 120 jobs at the Globe and outsource the work of some 50 personnel in the advertising and circulation departments to Bangalore.

The union says the cuts came despite their agreeing to a partial wage freeze and significant cuts in health care benefits. The NYT Company says the job cuts and offshoring of some work are necessary for the financial health of the paper.

The union isn't convinced, and in fact, it issued the scarifying 'loss of privacy' warning to subscribers.

"By outsourcing our work, The Boston Globe & New York Times Co. are sending a message that they no longer care enough to retain the very best people to handle customer accounts and client relationships," the ad said, cautioning readers that "Further, billing and account information will now be shipped overseas to Bangalore, India, putting customers' most vital information at risk."

It asked Bostonians to phone the Globe at a number it provided to protest the outsourcing move.

While thousands of workers across America have lost jobs because of outsourcing and have faded quietly from the scene, the newspaper union has managed to galvanize some public support. Last month, the Boston City Council passed a resolution calling the move to outsource jobs at to India as "deplorable."

Globe isn't the first media company to feel the outsourcing cut. There has been considerable disquiet in Reuters over the rapid growth of the company's operations in Bangalore, where Indian reporters cull news from financial statements and quarterly and annual reports of US companies.

American companies continue to look at cutting costs and improving their bottom line by outsourcing back room functions such as pay roll and subscription services -- anything that can be done on the phone and computer over long distance. Now, the media which reports this trend hasn't been spared either.

Date Posted: 3/16/2007

ah sweet globalization.

I think the reason why India gets most of the blame for loss of jobs is because mostly high-end, knowledge intensive jobs seem to be outsourced. Most of Wal-mart is made in China but apparently that ain't that bad.

ah sweet globalization.

I think the reason why India gets most of the blame for loss of jobs is because mostly high-end, knowledge intensive jobs seem to be outsourced. Most of Wal-mart is made in China but apparently that ain't that bad.


Even though a lot is outsourced, it represents only 10% of the total outsourcing opportunity.In the knowledge intensive IT products/reaearch sector a huge chunk is still done in the US. This represents a goldmine of opportunity in the near future:)

Wachovia set to diversify in India
Raghuvir Badrinath & Anil Urs / Bangalore March 21, 2007
url: http://www.business-standard.com/compindustry/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=278362&subLeft=1&leftnm=1

US bank to invest in real estate.

Wachovia, one of the largest banks in the US, with an asset base of more than $700 billion, is set to diversify in India. The bank, which has been focusing purely on correspondent banking in India for the past 25 years, has taken a decision to back real estate companies in the country.

For starters, Wachovia has entered into an agreement with Bangalore-based real estate developer RMZ Corp for the proposed Knowledge City in Bidadi on the outskirts of Bangalore.

According to information available, the Knowledge City will involve setting up an integrated township spread over 9,700 acres at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore.

The Karnataka IT Department has stated that the entire project will be awarded to a single bidder. The township will create work-live-play environment in modern urban settlements.

With this move, Wachovia joins a long list of global financial institutions such as J P Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup keen on the Indian real estate market.

Wachovia Corp, the fourth-largest bank in the US based on assets, has been operating in the country for more than 10 years.

According to a qualified bidder for the township, 24 companies have been shortlisted and they will be submitting their proposals by the end of May. It is expected that a winner will be notified within two months after submission of proposals.

Hope this helps in implementing a good transport system within BBMP and beyond...

Bangalore to get national school of planning

The Hindu, March 20, 2007

An allocation of Rs. 15 crore has been made for it: Tripathy

BANGALORE: A national school of planning and city architecture that will suggest ways of integrating transport and urban planning issues will come up soon in Bangalore, Upendra Tripathy, Managing Director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, said on Monday.

"We have allocated Rs. 15 crore for it, which will come up on 20 acres of land. Its aim will be to combine transport, city development and the environment," he said at the launch of the first International Association of Public Transport (UITP) office in India.

"After much deliberations and consultation with other members from India, we have chosen Bangalore as the destination," said Hans Rat, Secretary-General of UITP.

UITP is an international organisation based in Brussels in Belgium and has worked in the field of public transport for over 100 years. It has over 2,700 members from more than 90 countries and provides inputs on latest technology regarding transport.

D. Thangaraj, Principal Secretary (Transport), observed that with the challenges facing the transport sector, using international experiences and adopting best practices from other cities would help Bangalore. A. Ravindra, Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board, said policies must aim at discouraging private vehicles and provide incentives for using public transport.

Quoting a study, he said it had been found about 8 to 16 per cent of a household's income was spent on commuting.

Transport Minister N. Cheluvaraya Swamy was present.

NetApp plans expansion, second centre in B`lore
Aravind Gowda / Chennai/ Bangalore March 22, 2007

Network Appliance (NetApp), an enterprise storage solutions provider, plans to expand its Bangalore technology centre, the firm's largest R&D centre outside the US, in the coming months by investing close to $22 million (Rs 100 crore).

The Bangalore technology centre accounts for 12 per cent of NetApp’s global workforce.

“The Bangalore office is the fastest growing centre of NetApp. At present, the India operations headcount stands at 550. We will hire another 200 IT professionals by November. We intend to set up a second centre in Bangalore to accommodate 1,200 professionals,” NetApp president (India Operations) Vikram Shah told Business Standard.

NetApp opened the Bangalore technology centre, its fourth and second outside the US, in 2003.

According to Shah, the Bangalore centre is a macrocosm of NetApp’s activities handling IT infrastructure, engineering, global support centre, market analytics and product management.

“The maturity level of the teams has increased over years. The Bangalore centre is a critical component of NetApp's worldwide activities. This centre will continue to grow,” he added.

The company has invested $150 million so far in its Indian operations. “There is tremendous scope for growth in India from the perspectives of R&D and sales. We are particular about setting up a second centre in Bangalore since the ecosystem for growth is perfect. We expect it to happen over the next three years,” Shah stated.

NetApp, which caters to the enterprise market in the telecom and BPO space, registered $2.07 billion in the fiscal 2006.

“We expect to hit the $3-billion mark by April this year. The Bangalore technology centre has key contribution towards this,” he pointed out.

Shah said NetApp is the market leader in India in the storage space. “The Indian market is ripe for growth. NetApp is positioned to increase its market share by bringing in new systems.”

Karnataka plans semiconductor SEZs
Bs Reporter / Bangalore/ Chennai March 21, 2007
url:http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?leftnm=8&subLeft=8&chklogin=N&autono=278420&tab=r

Karnataka plans to form three special economic zones (SEZs) for the semiconductor sector at the proposed ‘Knowledge City’ on Bangalore’s outskirts.

The 10,000 acre-Knowledge City is coming up near Bidadi, 30 kilometres south-west of Bangalore. The government intends to have SEZs dedicated to the semiconductor sector in this area.

“The government is consulting the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) to evolve the SEZ plan. We are ready to set aside 400 acres for this purpose,” Karnataka’s IT / BT Secretary M N Vidyashankar said.

The state wants to set up SEZs specifically for semiconductor manufacturing, chip design, research and development.

“We intend to have at least three SEZs, each focussed on various aspects of semiconductor sector. The ISA will submit its plan shortly. We will take a decision after consulting the ISA. The government is committed to supporting the semiconductor sector,” he added.

Karnataka lost the $3.5 billion ‘Fab City’ project, promoted by SemIndia, to Andhra Pradesh last year. The state is now keen on retaining prospective investors by developing the ‘Knowledge City’, which will have several SEZs for high-end engineering and manufacturing.

Vidyashankar stated that the government is building a 8-lane highway connecting the ‘Knowledge City’ with the Bangalore International Airport coming up near Devanahalli to ensure connectivity.

IT FINISHING SCHOOL: In an effort to meet the growing demand for IT professionals, the state government has tied up with the Raman International Insitute of IT to offer postgraduate diploma programme.

“This IT finishing school will create industry-ready talent. The Mysore University will award the diploma,” Vidyashankar said.

Hamburg realty co in talks with B'lore's IBC
URVASHI JHA & M ROCHAN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2007 02:24:37 AM]

BANGALORE: Hamburg-based real estate investment management company, Union Investment Real Estate AG, which manages assets worth over e13.2 billion globally, is in talks to buy out the Bangalore-based India Builders Corp’s Knowledge Park, partly or in whole, for an undisclosed amount, sources say.

According to IBC’s website, the 14 acre Knowledge Park is valued at Rs 380 crore. Union Investment has already sent a letter of intent to the promoters of IBC Knowledge Park. This could mark the German’s major real estate player foray into India.

When contacted, Smita Ramakrishna, an official of IBC, confirmed the development but refused to give more details. The park is located on Bannerghatta Road, 5 km from Bangalore. With over 1.4 million sq ft of commercial space, the project houses the offices of Accenture and Oracle.

Union Investment plans to enter India through its Singapore subsidiary Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG (DIFA). DIFA was formed to aid Union Investment’s penetration into Asian growth markets.

“The real estate major is looking at commercial as well as mixed-use property development opportunities in India. Apart from investing in real estate projects in the country, the company could launch its real-estate brokerage service as well,” said a source. An email to Union Investment remained unanswered.

Investments in city-centre office space and business parks are the mainstay of DIFA’s investment strategy. In addition, DIFA is increasingly investing in shopping centres and business hotels. DIFA opened its regional office in Singapore in December 2006. The company, then had commented that it is looking at growth markets such as China and India.

The company currently manages five funds for private and institutional investors, comprising some 230 properties and projects in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Within the commercial real estate market, Union Investment Real Estate AG is active as an investor and project property developer, landlord and property seller.

urvashi.jha@timesgroup.com

Cabinet nod for PRR
url: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar232007/city033202007323.asp
DH News Service, Bangalore:

The first phase of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) connecting Tumkur Road with Hosur Road has got the State Cabinet's approval.

The State Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod for the first phase of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) which will connect Tumkur Road with Hosur Road.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti said the first phase will comprise a 65-km stretch with a eight lane carriageway. The final notification for acquiring 1,909 acres will be issued in 15 days, he said. Phase-II of the project will comprise 51 kms connecting Hosur Road with Tumkur Road and will require 1,862 acres.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had mooted PRR with the objective of diverting heavy vehicle traffic flowing into Bangalore. Once in place, PRR will help in diverting heavy vehicle traffic to the highways and offer better connectivity to the Bannerghatta Road, Bellary Road, Magadi Road and Mysore Road.

Implemented under the Jawaharalal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at a cost of Rs 2,065 crore, the road will be laid on the City’s peripheries at a radial distance of between 2.80 and 11.50 km from the existing Outer Ring Road (ORR).

The PPR was also in the news due to public opposition against land acquisition for the project. But the BDA’s attempts to arrive at a compromise by holding public hearing of land owners’ grievances had taken the sting out of the protests.

The logic behind the road project had also been questioned because of its proximity to the 41-km four-lane toll road built under the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC).

BP Solar To Open Two Mega Cell Plants

Posted on Mar 23rd, 2007 with stocks: BP

James Fraser submits: BP Solar (BP) announced that it has begun constructing two mega cell plants, one at its European headquarters in Tres Cantos, Madrid and the second at its joint venture facility, Tata BP Solar, in Bangalore, India.

For phase 1 of the Madrid expansion, BP Solar is aiming to expand its annual cell capacity from 55 MW to around 300 MW. The Bangalore expansion could add another 300 MW to BP Solar's total capacity.

The new cell lines use state-of-the-art screen printing technology,much of it proprietary to BP Solar. By fully automating wafer handling, the lines will be able to handle the very thinnest of wafers available and ensuring the highest possible quality.

'The announcement of the two mega cell plants cements BP Solar's commitment to maintain a market leadership position in PV' said Lee Edwards, BP Solar's CEO. "The new cell technologies we are using, our intellectual property in casting with Mono2 and the contracts we have signed to secure preferential access to metallurgical grade silicon are all important steps towards our goal of offering customers PV generated electricity on a par with the cost of conventional grid supplied electricity.

This announcement brings BP's total announced capacity to 690 MW, second behind Sharp (SHCAY). Sharp currently has three expansions underway which will bring their capacity to 820 MW per year.

These plants will bring us closer to being able to produce PV power at costs nearer that of conventional electricity. Several pundits have said that when production capacity reaches 1 GW at a single facility solar PV will be competitive with conventional electricity. Between the proprietary processes of several producers and the experience and expertise that AMD (AMD) is bringing to the field, reaching this goal is approaching faster than I had expected.

Govt nod for 27 FDI proposals
url: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar242007/business212192007323.asp

DH News Service, New Delhi:

The Centre has approved as many as 27 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals including that of Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The Centre, on Friday, approved as many as 27 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals including that of Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to set up a joint venture with an Israeli firm to manufacture parts and accessories for aircraft and spacecraft.

These 27 proposals envisaging inflow of FDI amounting to Rs 829.93 crore were cleared by Finance Minister P Chidambaram based on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

HAL will tie up with Elbit System Limited of Israel to set up the joint venture with the foreign equity of 26 per cent.

The proposed joint venture apart from manufacturing parts and accessories for aircrafts and spacecrafts etc will also undertake design development in the sector of avionics. The initial inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will be about Rs 2 crore.

Mantri Greens

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/3798/blrgreensya9.jpg

BDA allocates Rs. 750 cr. for Peripheral Ring Road

The Hindu

# Impact fee, JNNURM grant are major sources of revenue
# Rs. 500 crore expected from auctioning of sites

BANGALORE: For people suffering from the crumbling infrastructure of Bangalore city, there is a ray of hope. The Bangalore Development Authority has allocated a major portion of its resources in its forthcoming budget to improve the quality of life in the city.

For 2007-08, the BDA in its budget proposes to spend around Rs. 2,450 crore, sources in the Finance Department of the BDA told The Hindu on Wednesday. The proposed budget had been sent to the Government for approval.

"The budget has been prepared keeping in mind the urban policy of the Government," sources said.

Peripheral Ring Road, BDA's prestigious project, has been allocated Rs. 750 crore in the budget, for land acquisition. This 118-km road, which will connect all the six national highways running through the city and Mysore Road and Magadi Road, will require 3,532 acres of land. Housing for the Economically Weaker Sections, an oft-repeated promise of the State Government, gets Rs. 600 crore in the BDA's budget. Two lakh houses will be constructed by the BDA on the eastern and western parts of the city.

The BDA has set aside about Rs. 640 crore for acquiring lands around Bangalore.

BDA Commissioner M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda told The Hindu that the lands were being acquired for the formation of new layouts. He refused to state the number of layouts being formed or the amount of land being acquired, stating that the details would be made public only after the approval of the Master Plan 2015.

Major projects, including construction of underpasses at Ramamurthy Nagar and Magadi Road, have been allocated about Rs. 200 crore. Completing civil works at layouts developed by BDA, such as Banashankari Layout, HSR Layout, HRBR Layout and Anjanapura will get priority, said sources.

Another highlight of the budget were the tree parks that the BDA proposed to create in its new extensions. "We have started with an initial amount of Rs. 5 crore. We will increase it if need be," sources said. Major sources of revenue for the BDA are auction of lands recovered from encroachment and stray sites; levying of `impact fee' and funds from Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The BDA plans to raise Rs. 600 crore by levying impact fees on property owners around the peripheral ring road as they would benefit from it in terms of access and increase in property value. The authority has pinned its hopes on the soaring market rates and expects at least Rs. 500 crore from auctioning of sites.

It hopes to get Rs. 800 crore as grants from the Centre and State as part of JNNURM for the peripheral ring road. Property tax and other revenue receipts are expected to generate about Rs. 120 crore.

Breathe easy, new projects are here

The Times of India

Bangalore: Left carriageway of the underpass at Ramamurthynagar on Outer Ring Road, widened road between HAL corporate office to Kundalahalli junction and the left carriageway of the road over-bridge at Marathahalli will be thrown open for traffic on Friday. Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy will inaugurate the projects.

After opening the left carriageway, the BDA will take up work on the right carriageway. Similarly, the right carriageway work of Marathahalli over-bridge will commence after Friday.

The road from HAL to Kundalahalli cross is 5.13 km and at Marathahalli, Bangalore-Salem railway line crosses this road with a road overbridge. This road also gives connectivity to Airport from Electronic City and Whitefield. As such, the existing carriageway, which is undivided at some stretches, is not sufficient to cater even to the present day traffic. Hence the BDA decided to take up its widening at a cost of Rs 6.33 crore. It is now a 4-lane divided carriageway where pavements have been strengthened, parking space created on both sides of the road in Marathahalli limits, lane marking, road traffic signs and road furniture have been put.

The existing road over-bridge accommodates two-lane traffic of Airport Road and it was decided to build a new over-bridge with six-lane carriageway. Railways are implementing the project as a deposit contribution work.

The Ramamurthynagar underpass is a three-lane bi-directional carriageway and this is being implemented at a cost of Rs 17.46 crore.

Is end of traffic nightmare neigh?

Deccan Herald

By July next year, the long Hosur Road grind could well become a cruise for motorists. Promoters of the upcoming elevated expressway between Central Silk Board Junction and Electronic City will install a Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS) to ensure a foolproof safety mechanism on the 9-km road.

The Rs 765-crore expressway is a joint venture of Soma Enterprise Ltd., Nagarjuna Constructions Co. and Maytas Infra Pvt Ltd.

The HTMS will comprise round-the-clock monitoring of traffic on the expressway and provide advance information to motorists. “An emergency response system is being set up in case of accidents or breakdowns, to minimise traffic disruption on the highway,” Soma Enterprise Director Ankineedu Maganti told Deccan Herald.

The HTMS will be monitored from two “administrative camps”, to be set up at Electronic City and Attibele. The system consists of emergency call boxes, mobile radios, variable message signs, metrological sensors, CCTV surveillance at major junctions, highway patrols, ambulances and tow-away vehicles.

After the 9-km elevated stretch ends at Electronic City, the expressway will continue as a 15-km at-grade highway till the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu boundary. About 25 per cent of the work on the expressway, set for a July 2008 opening, has been completed.

‘To last 100 years’

“We have evaluated the project capacity till the end of our concession period of 20 years. For this period, we believe that the capacity being created is sufficient, based on projected growth rates. The design of the structure, however, is for a life of over 100 years,” Mr Maganti said.

The traffic in the first year of its operation is expected to be 167,000 passenger car units (PCU) a day at Silk Board Junction and 110,000 PCU at Electronic City Junction.

The expressway will be an access-controlled, elevated four-lane road from Silk Board Junction to Electronic City. Motorists using the highways will be subjected to a toll.

The expected tariffs at the elevated highway and at-grade highway, respectively, are: Two-wheelers (Rs 15; nil), cars (Rs 25; Rs 15), mini-buses and LCVs (Rs 35; Rs 25), buses and trucks (Rs 70; Rs 50) and heavy construction machinery (Rs 140; Rs 105).

The toll plazas will have features including electronic toll collection and contact-less magnetic cards. “We will have day passes as well as monthly passes. The day passes will be charged at 1.5 times the single-use fee, and the monthly passes at 30 times the single-use fee,” Mr Maganti said.

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7112/1507/1600/555939/20070318a_01610100701.jpg

Posted in the correct thread (Indian Space Sector)

OG...
on BTRAC
i thought the idea of measuring congestion through cell fone signal monitoring was pretty interesting.

isn't this the centralized monitoring system they plan to house in utility towers?

have seen some tenders etc on this. so this seems in progress.
but they have to fix driver training, licencing side of this too. they have had computerized LLs for a while in KA. but the actual DL issue is very flaky. I am also unaware of any standardization - rules, signs, road design, monitoring etc.,

it is also significant that autos have been thought about. but i dunno if this implies mere regulation of service or actually is a step towards utilizing them as legitimate modes of quasi public transport.

aside...
on the BMIC road, they have installed a meteorological station at the somapura clover. small but IMO significant step stats are what are missing.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/29/stories/2007032906480200.htm


(image now showing)

India being a service oriented economy, in one of my MBA position paper I had listed this (launching foreign satellites) as a high end services that India can offer to the world.

ISRO To Launch Foreign Satellite As Primary Payload First Time
url: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/ISRO_To_Launch_Foreign_Satellite_As_Primary_Payload_First_Time_999.html

The ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will launch the 360-kg AGILE spacecraft as a primary payload next month.

by Staff Writers
Bangalore (PTI) Mar 26, 2007

India for the first time will launch a foreign satellite -- an Italian one -- as a primary payload on a home-grown rocket, as space scientists prepare to further demonstrate the country's cost-effective launch services capability.


Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched foreign payloads as piggybacks in the past; next month's mission would see the space agency launching the 360-kg AGILE spacecraft as a primary payload.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the workhorse rocket of Bangalore-headquartered ISRO, would blast-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota with AGILE and India's Advanced Avionics Module (AAM) as secondary payload.

The launch is scheduled between April 20-30.

"It will send a right message to global community. This contract (to launch AGILE) was obtained against competition, and once we are able to launch it on time and at a good price, I think this (foreign payload launches) will start coming more and more to us", ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI here.

AGILE is a space scientific mission devoted to gamma-ray astrophysics supported by the Italian Space Agency, with the scientific and programmatic co-participation of the Italian Institute of Astrophysics and the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics.

The 180-kg AAM is aimed at testing some of the advanced avionic package for use in the future PSLV flights, the space agency said.

Officials said PSLV configuration for next month's flight would be modified to use only the core vehicle (without the six solid propellant strap-on motors).

There is no way this is a Bangalore project. This belongs in the Indian space sector thread. Try posting out of this thread once in a while.

There is no way this is a Bangalore project. This belongs in the Indian space sector thread. Try posting out of this thread once in a while.

Posted in the correct thread, thanks for letting me know...

Vadi,

Yes, the centralized monitoring systems will be placed in the Utility Building, unless it has changed since then. According to the news, these changes will take place in about six months time frame. Will have to wait and see....

Regarding the meteorological station, as per EIA report the BMIC has to produce seasonal air quality reports to the KSPCB. In addition to this, they may also have to provide noise and vehicular emission reports.

Guys, can I ask you all a favor...

Can some of you maintain a Chennai projects thread in the
Skyscraper Page India (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/forumdisplay.php?f=124) forum?

I don't have much free time, and I'm already spread very thin maintaining threads here, and major projects threads over at SSP. We should use an SSP Chennai thread for redundancy, in case the database of one of these forums gets wiped out.

We're also lacking a Chennai and Hyderabad presence there

Cheers!

EADS plans engineering hub in India
url: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/03eads.htm

April 03, 2007 11:59 IST

Major global aviation and defence consortium, European Aviation, Defence and Space company will invest in an engineering centre in India to develop aviation software and aircraft designs for its planes and other systems.

The centre, for which land has been leased at the upcoming new greenfield Bangalore airport, would house units of major Indian software firms like HCL, Satyam and Infosys as well as some European companies to develop specific software and designs, EADS (India) CEO Yves Guillaume told PTI.

The software would be produced for defence systems as well as planes like the largest Airbus A-380s and A-350, which is in the pipeline, besides the Airbus military aircraft.

All investments on this centre of EADS, which has aircraft major Airbus Industrie as one of its business units, as well as the purchases over the next 15 years would amount to over two billion Euros.

Airbus recently backed an MoU signed between state-owned airline Indian and Bangalore-based Jupiter Aviation to establish an estimated Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) worth Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India to service the large Airbus fleet being acquired by several Indian carriers.

"The Airbus is roughly delivering one aircraft each week to either private or public sector airlines. It is cheaper for us as well as the airlines to get their fleet repaired here itself," Guillaume said, adding that the target date for the MRO to start operations was next year. The MRO could also be used by airlines from the neighbouring regions.

ETA Star Gardens

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6800/etagardensblrus8.png

Great news for the Inner Core Ring Road! The Bangalore Budget has allocated money for constructing it :)

Check this Site (http://bmponline.org/tenders/elevated%20ring%20rd.shtml") out for plans/studies and figures of the elevated ring road.

For those with no clue whatsoever,check the following link out
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2341/bangalorerrgk7.jpg

Longer wait for signal-free Inner Core Ring Road (http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9908/2007041813950101zn9.jpg)


Poor response from global players; BBMP extends deadline for bids

# April 30 is the revised deadline for submitting global bids
# The ring road will have several ramps and vehicle subways

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9908/2007041813950101zn9.jpg


BANGALORE: Your wait to zip past in the proposed 30-km traffic signal-free Inner Core Ring Road could be longer as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is hoping that more global bidders will come forward to execute the project.

The last date for submitting the "expression of interest" for the project was extended twice as only a single company from Singapore has applied so far. With not many global takers for the project, the civic body has extended the deadline to April 30.

This means work on the project will take six more months to start and three years to be completed.

BBMP has planned the two-way, four-lane, elevated Inner Core Ring Road to connect 50 important junctions of the city. This will enable motorists to cruise along the road in 30 minutes. One can reach the Rajajinagar Entrance from Makkala Koota (Shivashankar Circle) in less than 10 minutes.

Connectivity

The road will connect important locations of the central business district such as the Yeshwanthpur and the Karnataka Bhavan junctions, the Shivshankar Circle (near Makkala Koota) and the Gurdwara, the Jayamahal Road and the Audugodi Road junctions.

To be executed on a design-build-operate and transfer (DBOT) basis, the facility will have several ramps leading to interior areas, mini flyovers and vehicle subways. This will enable motorists to get on or off the road.

BBMP Chief Engineer (Projects) A.K. Gopalswamy told The Hindu on Tuesday that the project had been planned to ease congestion in the city.

"Although we had a March 30 deadline for bidders, we have to extend it because we want more enterprising companies to participate," he said.

A few Indian companies and only one Singapore firm had shown interest so far. "We are hoping more will come forward. After we finalise the contractor, a feasibility survey on the number of traffic ramps and related facilities will be conducted."

He said the company could collect toll on the road for a fixed number of years after which it would be transferred to the BBMP.

The cost of the project was estimated at Rs. 1,440 crore, he added.

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Orchard Palace Hotel, Bangalore
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2052/orchardpalace15d466dest6.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9991/orchardpalace25d48ec9nc9.jpg

Designed by SAA Architects, Singapore.

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IDEB Construction's River Spring, Bangalore:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/5632/riverspringflats400608fqr6.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4282/birdseyeview609b134nx4.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9372/landscapeplan609cc1fhs4.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/5710/childrenplayground609f2ab8.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/3898/recreationalarea60a152eue0.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/3329/swimmingpool260a277dyw2.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2752/swimmingpool60a38e2nh8.jpg

It is conveniently located from the outer right road. The High rise luxury apartment complex of 28,00,000 sft. spread over 26 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens houses 1340 apartments spread across 24 buildings, each of 15 floors with ultra modern amenities and facilities need to enjoy "lifestyle living".

North City Design Philosophy – The Riverspring The driving inspiration to the landscape design is the ever-graceful ‘river’, a giver of life and the lifeline of civilizations. From the Nile to the Ganges, the river is a binding force that unites people of diverse background and trades. A symbol of unity, growth and dexterity, the ever-changing river runs constantly and unceasingly. Aspiring to represent these attributes, North City incorporated the river theme whose elegant curvature is echoed along the main thoroughfare in the form of the weaving canopies and the meandering pathways that connects the residential estate.

In direct reference to the river, a long water body of varying depth comprising of a lap pool, a wading pool and a fun pool also runs through North City. Diverging from this are playful fountains that adorn the landscape. Like the springs in the mountains, these fountains function as smaller gathering areas and center of attractions to be enjoyed by the residences.

Designed by Ong & Ong Architects, Singapore.

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and where pray will the water come from, singapore?
they better harvest their own river. coz ground has no water neither do the pipes. :)

^^ Hmmm..anyway more and more projects in Bangalore are based on this theme; like Purva Reviera, Purva Venezia, and now this.

And I feel they may not need much water, the waterbodies planned in all projects are much shallow,(on account of safety). And they can adopt rainwater harvesting; Bangalore is not bad with respect to rains, I feel. These summer days, Bangalore is getting intermittent heavy rains.

hopefully what you are saying is true chetta. hope the builders approach RWH as a solution and go the whole hog on it. They must not approach it as a clearance issue and just do the bare minimum.

ETA Star Gardens

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6800/etagardensblrus8.png

nice setting ..:cheers:

URL: http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/25/stories/2007042513630400.htm
12 radial roads for Bangalore Metropolitan Region notified

Sharath S. Srivatsa

The aim is to reduce travel time, vehicular pollution and accidents
http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/25/images/2007042513630401.jpg

BANGALORE: In an effort to improve connectivity and ease movement of traffic between towns near Bangalore city, 12 radial roads with a total length of 175 km have been finalised by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The cost of the project is likely to be Rs. 1,400 crore.

This network of radial roads in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region are needed to decongest traffic within Bangalore city, taluk headquarter towns and other major towns and meet future traffic needs. These roads, according to the notification, will reduce travel time and pollution and provide better connectivity in and around Bangalore, besides decreasing the severity and number of accidents.

Notification

The Authority notified formation of the radial roads on April 19 after a detailed survey. A total of 104.71 km of existing roads will be retained for the radial roads, and 71.12 km of bypasses will be built for the towns.

Metropolitan Commissioner Sudhir Krishna told The Hindu that the radial road project was a supporting project for the proposed Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR), Intermediate Ring Road (IRR) and the Individual Town Ring Road (ITRR).

"The development of radial roads will have localised benefits and the width of the roads will be widened from 60 ft to 200 ft. Approximate cost has been calculated to be Rs. 8 crore a kilometre, which also includes the cost of land acquisition. Certain geometric variations have been to incorporated to allow high-speed traffic on these radial roads," he said.

The radial roads will also connect the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) proposed by the Bangalore Development Authority and the IRR and the STRR proposed by the BMRDA.

The 12 radial roads that have been notified by the Authority are Yelahanka-Doddaballapur, Sulibele-Nandagudi, Bangalore ORR-Sarjapur, Bommanahalli-Anekal (via Jigani), Harohalli-Dodda Maralavadi, Alimaranahalli-Sathnur, Lakshmipura-Chikkanahalli, Tavarekere-Kumbalgodu, Magadi-Bangalore, Banaswadi-Nelamangala, Kanaswadi-Doddaballapur and Kanaswadi-Doddaballapur Road.

To pass through villages

The roads, according to a topographical survey, will pass through 149 villages falling under the jurisdictions of 11 taluks, including Anekal, Devanahalli, Doddaballapur, Hoskote, Kanakapura, Magadi, Nelamangala, Ramanagaram, Bangalore (North) and Bangalore (South).

The notification states that no authority or person should undertake or permit any development within the alignments for the radial roads without the permission of the Authority

nice setting ..:cheers:

actually i think that backdrop is probably only an illustration - i think the project is actually within the city itself.. can one of the B'lore forumers confirm?

:)

^^ Yes, the website says 1.5 km from Majestic. But I feel Bangalore is more green in the city than in the suburbs. Suburbs are normally barren and dry patch of land, but the core city area has been developed with lots of parks, gardens etc, thatz why it is called the garden city.

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/29/stories/2007042913280100.htm
Bidders make a killing in land auction

BANGALORE: Nearly 45 per cent of the government's encroached land auctioned on Saturday fetched prices less than the guidance value. On the whole, 254 acres of land was auctioned for a mere Rs. 71.50 crore.

Though the remaining 140 acres of land fetched a little above the guidance value, bidders made a killing as the price they quoted was much below the market value.

Fourth day : On the fourth day, all the pieces of property auctioned were in Dasanapura hobli in Bangalore North taluk. At Hunigere village, 14 acres and 15 guntas of land was auctioned for Rs. 8 lakh an acre when the guidance value is Rs. 28 lakh an acre. At Govindapura village, eight acres of land was auctioned for Rs. 10 lakh an acre when the guidance value is Rs. 28 lakh.

Jindal Developers bid for 12.29 acres and 21.10 acres of land at Kadaranahalli village. Its bids were Rs. 26.8 lakh and Rs. 27.53 lakh for the two blocks while the guidance value is Rs. 56 lakh an acre of land.

Gain: The only big gain for the Government was when 17 guntas and 12 guntas of land at Kittanahalli fetched Rs. 50 lakh and Rs. 44 lakh, respectively. The guidance value is Rs. 18 lakh an acre.

Of the 39 bidders, major chunks of the land went to an individual, Pattabhiram (52 acres), and Jindal Developers (51 acres).
is there some kind syndications among buyers ...

oh for sure.
yesterday they(BDA) did get some good price. i dunno man.

Tunnel to Hebbal flyover taking shape

From TOI


This project will make it easy to reach the international airport. B S Manu Rao reports


Even as the green boards around the city announce the beginning of the metro rail project, another ambitious one-of-itskind venture is quietly taking shape. Recently, a group from Shanghai was in the city to make a presentation to the Chief Minister on the making of a tunnel from Minsk Square near the cricket stadium to the Hebbal flyover. This tunnel will make the planned 'north corridor' come true, carving out an expressway through some of the city's busy localities.
"There are two options. One is two three-lane tunnels alongside each other and the other is one three-lane tunnel below another. This will facilitate uninterrupted and fast movement of traffic from the heart of the city till the Hebbal flyover, making commuting to the airport quick and easy", says M K Shankaralinge Gowda, Commissioner, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). This ambitious project, as the Commissioner says, "will be the showpiece of the country".
The project comes with a major advantage. There is no need for any land acquisitions. "Nothing on the surface will be disturbed. The entire tunneling and work will happen underground. People above the ground will not even be aware of the work going on", he says. The fact that traffic and movement will not be disturbed will come as a major relief to Bangaloreans and the traffic police alike. This project will also mean no dust pollution and disruptions. The people working in the business establishments and living in the residences along the way will not be subjected to inconvenience.
This project will cost around Rs 800 crores and is expected to be completed in around three years from its beginning. "We will be calling for expression of interest in less than a month. After that, we will call for tenders for the works. We may even have the project completed in 30 months", says Shankaralinge Gowda.
"This project is excellent", says M A Saleem, DIG of police. "The construction work happening under the ground is good for the traffic police too. Recently, a pedestrian sub-way was built under the Sir C V Raman Road, connecting the campus of Indian Institute Science on either side of the road. No one was even aware while using the road that this work was on". On movement inside the tunnel, he says, "These tunnels will have only traffic and no pedestrians. Also, there will be no intersections and it is a one-way movement in the tunnel. This makes it unnecessary to have traffic police in them all the time".
The tunnel will have illumination, ducting and facilities to drain water seeping in. Such tunnels come with a good surface that makes it easy to drive through. Connecting to the flyover will take the commuters to the six-lane road from there onwards, making it a smooth and fast drive to the international airport.
Apart from connecting to the airport, this tunnel also makes the northern parts of the city much easier to access. With the planned Peripheral Ring Road and existing Outer Ring Road, this project opens up the north to further development thanks to the efficient road connectivity. The project will create opportunities for all sectors to look at commercial and residential development in that part of the city.


An artist's impression of the proposed tunnel road in Bangalore.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may82007/img/1.jpg

wow that's awesome!!! hope it works out..

Railway Station to be made world class


Bangalore City Railway Station will be converted into a world class station and tenders for providing consultancy services will be invited shortly, Praveen Kumar, General Manager, South Western Railway, has said.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Mr. Kumar said that finalising the services and facilities to be provided at the station was taking time, as there was no model station to emulate in the country.

"Railway stations outside the country have world class facilities but the problem is that our requirements are different from the ones there," he said.

Stations at Bangalore Cantonment, Krishnarajpuram, Tumkur, Bangarpet and Hosur are being developed into model stations, he said. Facilities will be upgraded at Whitefield, Yelahanka, Dharmapuri, Mandya, Hindupur, Bangalore East, Byyapanahalli, Malleswaram, Kengeri and Kuppam. Food plazas, ATMs, pay-and-use toilets, security surveillance are also being planned at many stations, he said.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/10/stories/2007051000680300.htm

The malling of Bangalore
The rise of a new middle class in India's Silicon Valley has led to a demand for western-style shopping malls. Fortune's Sufia Tippu breaks ground.
By Sufia Tippu, Fortune Magazine
May 10 2007: 5:41 AM EDT


(Fortune Magazine) -- Get ready for the malling of Bangalore.

In June an Indian developer based in Oman is expected to break ground on a two-million-square-foot shopping complex in downtown Bangalore that will be India's largest mall. Nine other malls are on the drawing board for the epicenter of India's tech revolution, including projects by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, retailer Pantaloon and the Tata Group, India's largest business conglomerate.


What's driving the surge in mall projects in Bangalore is the rise of a new middle class. Many have been exposed to shopping malls in the West. "Disposable income is rising," says P.N.C. Menon, chairman of Sobha Developers, which is spending $250 million on Bangalore's biggest mall, scheduled to open in 2009.

The Sobha Global Mall, as Menon's shopping paradise will be called, features stores built around a skylighted atrium on 16 acres, a 13-screen multiplex, food courts, a rooftop disco, a 300-room hotel tower and enough parking for 3,400 cars. It is being built not in Bangalore's newer, more upmarket neighborhoods but in the center of the city, a kilometer from the bustling train station.

Be Indian, buy American
"I don't want this to be merely the largest shopping mall in India," says Menon, 59, who established his reputation for quality by building palaces in the Gulf and most of the California-style campus for Infosys (Charts), the Bangalore tech giant. "This should be a one-of-a-kind experience for the shopper - never to be......

Continue Reading at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/14/100024843/?postversion=2007051005