HSR Layout

On November 19, we wrote about a prostitution racket being publicised on a website and Twitter handle. The HSR cops got back to us saying that the pimps simply name posh areas in Bangalore as part of their marketing tactic although the place of their operations could be outside HSR.

 

While the Twitter handle did not update HSR for a while, it is back up again. Just 11 hours ago, it has posted that offers “Body to Body massage, Oil massage, Female to male full body massage in Bangalore, Independent girls personal services in RR Nagar, Nagarbhavi, JP Nagar, Koramangala, HSR Layout, Hebbal, Banaswadi, Electronic city.” While this news was relayed to the cops, in addition to their website (Sanjanaspa.com), nothing much has been done to atleast shutdown the Twitter handle and the website. The HSR cops could clearly assign this job to the cybercrime police station and act immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Belgaum legislature session prevented the inauguration from happening in December. As of March 2019, it was yet to be inaugurated, but the amphitheatre is already being used by the general public in storytelling, dance and other sessions for the kids. Just remember that the use of loudspeakers is restricted as the residents around the area are inconvenienced by the high decibels.

The presence of Oxford College and National Public School (NPS) is causing much heartburn among residents of 17th B Main in Sector 4. Adding to their problems is the lackadaisical attitude of school authorities, bus drivers and civic agencies in finding a permanent solution to the problem of rash driving, blaring loud speakers and traffic jams on this thoroughfare. In addition, two residential buildings have turned commercial and host Paying Guest accommodations, two xerox shops and a tailoring unit. The result is that there is queuing up of people, haphazard parking, constant noise and a lot of latenight pickup and drops of men and women staying in PGs.

 

 

 

 

 

NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL

The residents of this road complain that the National Public School in HSR Layout is high-handed about its functioning. Whether it’s playing blaring music all day a month before the recent annual day function or the haphazard parking of vehicles by parents in front of people’s houses on 17th B Main, or the high-handedness of school bus drivers, the residents have had enough of the school. That it has pupils of IAS officers and politicians makes it get away with many of these issues, claim residents.

 

The problems don’t just end there. “The school authorities are arrogant and don’t respond to complaints from the residents,” says resident activist Kavitha Reddy. “The Sector 4 Residents Welfare Association has written 55 letters to the school regarding the traffic, noise and road congestion issues in the last 4-5 years, but the school chooses to keep mum about them all. We call for a meeting and they don’t come.”

 

The most recent was the day-long blaring music that went on in the school campus to prepare for a recently-concluded school fest. The issue is that such festivities happen on school grounds on a regular basis. With several senior citizens living on 17th B Main, the noise norms are getting violated and the day-long music is hurting everyone. “The school is like a fort… they don’t want to talk to anybody outside,” said Kavitha. “Let them issue instructions to the parents not to park in front of people’s homes. They can also use their security personnel to resolve the parking problems. For functions, they can request Freedom School to lend their grounds.”

 

There are other noise pollution sources as well. “They keep big generators in front of our houses, and they go on and on,” says another resident Panduranga CR. “They stink too. Why can’t they place the generators inside? They have a big campus.”

 

RESIDENTS’ CARS UNDER HOUSE ARREST

“We can’t bring out our cars from houses as the buses are parked on the school side and the parents park in front of our house,” says Panduranga. “We cannot handle the parents, only the school management can police them by issuing an instruction that parking on 17th B Main will not be allowed.”

 

The residents understand that certain issues need a compromise. But all they are asking for is to be consulted when certain issues cannot be resolved. “They should respect the neighbours,” says Kavitha. “That coexistence formula is not there which is what is agitating people as they are doing their own thuggery.”

 

Two years ago, the issue with bus drivers reached a flashpoint when a bus driver hit a resident for objecting to haphazard parking of school buses on the public road. “We filed a case against the drivers, and today, the drivers are begging us to withdraw the complaint,” said Kavitha. “The school authorities say that they have outsourced the bus service and are therefore not responsible for the bus driver’s actions. Playing ‘chamma chamma’ and other dance numbers with full-on speakers is not positive energy, it’s disgusting! Cops have been called thrice already due to the noise from speakers at NPS School!”

 

THE OXFORD COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

The students from Oxford College are another problem. “There is public display of affection by them all along the road,” said Kavitha. Another resident Shamanna Reddy echoes her feelings and says, “The school students drive rashly and make too much on 17th B Main where I stay. This road is a nuisance for the last 8-10 years and no amount of complaints to BBMP to install speed humps has worked. Similarly, the traffic cops are not finding a permanent solution to the rash driving issue here.”

 

Resident V Anand Kumar says they have no problems with other schools like Freedom International and Shakuntala Devi as they are not on 17th B Main. “The problem is only with NPS and Oxford college,” he says. “The cops are also helpless. I have seen them doing nothing even when four students are on a bike and indulging in PDA. The cops tell us if the parents are not bothered about their kids, why should we?”

 

COMMERCIALISATION

A bakery was stopped from coming up on the road, but the two PGs on the road are not hosting a new xerox shop in addition to the existing xerox shop and a tailoring unit. “All these facilities lead to a crowd of students parking their two wheelers haphazardly,” says Kumar. “Every other day, I am fighting with the college authorities as I am not able to take out my car. The college security only works when I scream at them. On other days, they go lax again. Because of PGs, women stand out at night, creating further nuisance as guys pick up and drop them. The college authorities organise birthday parties and throw the garbage on the road.”

 

We asked NPS principal Shefali Tyagi to get back to us on the complaints from residents. But she never did, even months later. That shows the arrogance with which the school management operates in a residential locality. Who will bring these offenders to book, ask hapless residents.

There is no electricity since 11am in Sector 3 today. The Bangalore Electric Supply Company (BESCOM) officials informed Residents Watch that two transformer cables are being replaced. “The work is time-consuming and takes 6-7 hours,” said one official. “The power should be restored in Sector 3 by 6pm.”

 

 

 

This power interruption is part of the months-long work going on by BESCOM to install low tension aerial bunched cables across HSR Layout. Once installed, the cables will not be hazardous to trees or people even if you touch them as they will be heavily insulated from the elements. They will be electrocution-free. Which means, the power won’t be shutdown even when it rains.

 

BESCOM officials told Residents Watch that so far, 60% of work in yet to be done in Sector 3. Only Sector 6 work is complete, so the VVIPs, particularly IAS officials will be the least inconvenienced. Sector 7 will be next – 80% of this work is complete. The rest of the sectors have to still play catch up as they are only 30-40% complete.

 

Powercuts, anyone?

Call 1912 and complain anyway. Don’t assume that it could be because of this project. In some cases, the reason could be something else. Prompt reporting is a must to rectify other issues. If that doesn’t help, you can call the executive engineer at 9449844825 or the office landline at 08022584382. Email: eehsrlayout@bescom.co.in, aeeohsrlayout@bescom.co.in.

Nineteeen-year-old KM Vishall Somaiya, a resident of Teacher’s Colony that is adjacent to HSR Sector 5, is a mechanical engineering student of New Horizon College of Engineering in Marathahalli. He and his friends from different disciplines like automobile and electrical engineering have built an energy-efficient solar vehicle for an international contest by Shell. They are one among the four participants from Bangalore who are shortlisted for the competition in the second week of December called Shell Eco-Marathon in Chennai.

 

 

 

 

Not only will Vishall’s work be displayed but also tested for its real-world capability at this contest whose goal is to reward energy-efficient vehicles that are indigenously made. His Team Akruth is one of the 18 taking part from across India.

 

So what is the USP of the vehicle designed by Vishall and Co.? “It’s eco-friendly and a highly economical three-wheeled electric car,” Vishall tells Residents Watch. “Our first priority is safety and efficiency, which is why we have a steel structure with impact resistant material and yet the vehicle is light-weight.”

 

The other highlights of the team’s vehicle include a tear drop shape for least air resistance while driving, sensors for fault detections, solar panels for additional battery life and performance, and regenerative breaking for low power consumption, among others.

 

“We focussed on efficiency on road and achieving more mileage than speed,” says Vishall. It’s a single seater that is highly economical and comfortable. The others in Vishall’s team include Faisal, Shashank, San, Nishant, Tejas, Anmol, Aashish, Pranav, Sudarshan and Rakesh (lecturer & team lead). “We custom designed our own battery controller and battery management system,” says Vishall. “The prototype cost us nearly Rs 1 lakh to make. if it were to be mass produced with high carbon fibre, it would cost around Rs 6-7 lakh.”

 

For a more detailed video, you could click here.

A three-year project will come to fruition tomorrow when public cycle parking will be thrown open to residents at 18 places across HSR Layout. The reason for the delay was the civic works being carried out by the BBMP and the flooding issue that enveloped the neighbourhood in the interim.

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s a very unique project based on multiple themes unlike any other in the world,” says Shashidhara K of HSR Cyclists Group that won the Neighbourhood Improvement Program challenge in December 2015 that helped create this facility.

 

Says resident and cyclist Sankar: “It took a long time to realise the project. Running between DULT (Department of Urban Land Transport) and BBMP for paper work and approvals. Hats off to Shashidhar for patiently working towards realising the project.”

 

Along the way, there were certain changes done to the project. The original plan was to facilitate parallel parking of cycles. But later, it was changed to linear parking as it would cause least inconvenience to pedestrians and the handle bars will not come in the way of movement. “There were 20 spots identified, but two had to be dropped near HSR Club and Mantri Square due to lack of pedestrian walkways,” says Shashidhara.

 

The majority of the cycling parking spots can be found on 27th Main, 17th Cross, 19th Main, and Agara bus stand. “There is space for 18 cycles at Agara,” says Shashidhara. “The number can go up if private parties decide to come here as well, after they take the requisite approval from the BBMP.”