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TenderSure takes off, finally

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Written By murali772 - 25 April, 2014

Bangalore BBMP Corruption Road Works Media Reports efficiency

If BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) is to be believed, then  about 80 roads in the city will be free of digging for various purposes.  As a part of the process the civic agency has marked 18 roads in three packages under Specifications for Urban Road Execution (SURE) with investment of `200 crore.

A sum of `100 crore for the project will be given from the CM's Nagrotana Grant and the Palike will source `100 crore from its account. The contractors can avail the money only after completion of the project.

BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana told City Express that this project, will be the first of its kind in the entire country. "Once the project is complete, the roads will not require any major maintenance for next 20 years as cutting and digging will not be allowed on these roads. The money that would have gone into repairs and maintenance of those roads can be better utilised for improving other major roads," the Commissioner said.

The first package includes seven roads. Commissionerate Road, Cunningham Road, Residency Road, Richmond Road, Museum Road, Vittal Mallya Hospital Road and St Marks Road. "Work on three roads has started. Cunningham Road, St Marks and Vittal Mallya Road will be completed as per the agreement between the contractor with the Palike. Within six months, work on Vittal Mallya Road will be completed as there are less obstacles," he said.

 

For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here.

Finally, the long awaited work has commenced. May be Prajagalu may want to keep a track of the progress here.

Muralidhar Rao

COMMENTS

welcome change

murali772 - 17 November, 2014 - 12:52

The TenderSURE project aims at transforming the urban street by streamlining utilities under it and providing wider pedestrian walkways, cycle tracks and travel lanes. It is the brainchild of Swati Ramanathan, co-founder of Jana group and chairperson of Jana Urban Space Foundation. In an interview with TOI, she says she expects the current inconvenience to be forgotten once the project is complete and the transformational project to be emulated across India.
 
For the full text, click here.
 
From a reading of it, one gets the impression that most aspects have been covered. But, on the Vittal Mallya road, which was supposedly done up a couple of years back on the same basis, there's a serious flooding problem when it rains heavily. I wonder if the required corrections have been effected when doing up the present set of roads. Also, it's not clear if the rain-water is being channelised to flow into the storm-water drains, or if it is being used to re-charge the ground water table at the local level.
 
Whatever, it's a welcome change from the unsatisfactory practices of the past, and can perhaps be improved upon based on future learnings. 
 

well said..

srinidhi - 18 November, 2014 - 16:27

In yesterdays ToI article it is said:

"We must recognize that any road stretch is only as good as its narrowest width. If we let lose a hundred cars in a wide part of the road, we will have a bottleneck and congestion where the road narrows to allow only 25 cars to go through, with no net gain in speed."

This is what the BBMP engineers should realize asap!

Penalosa OK; BRT yaake?

murali772 - 2 January, 2015 - 12:53

@ Vasanth - You'll notice that while Ravichandar has extensively cited Penalosa, he too has stated that BRT is not suited to Bengaluru. My stance of course is that it is not suited to any city, Metro being a far better option if you have to go for that level of mass transport. Reasons have been elaborated here - I'll not say more.
 

Two-part TV-9 debate

murali772 - 29 December, 2014 - 13:01

Ravichandar expounding on the benefits of TenderSure, Pedestrianisation, and me supporting him overall, and adding my bit on Intelligent bus transport services (needless to add, by Private operators, and even by BMTC, if they can match up to them). 
 
 
Happy viewing.

green group's overall support

murali772 - 16 November, 2014 - 16:40

Excerpts from report of re-think in Economic Times (full text here), and comments thereof in a tree-lovers' YahooGroup:
 
There will be no rethink on the width of carriageways and footpaths on St Marks's Road, Cunningham Road, Museum road and Vittal Mallya hospital road, the government has said. These roads are currently undergoing a makeover under the Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Road Execution) project. 
 
- - - - That the government is rethinking the project is "something I am well aware of," V Ravichandar, the foundation's evangeliser who was involved in conceptualising the project, told ET. "The way I see it, there are people trying to protect their turfs. The project challenges existing ways of doing roads and this has threatened the traditional repeated-spending model in awarding road contracts," he said, urging citizens and the state to wait for the results of the project.
 
MV:
a)There is a severe concern of how tender sure roads allow for water percolation,enriching water table .The best proponents of tender sure get defensive or evasive if this is brought up. There are no sink holes , or rather they are inadequate. According to the better engineers in BBMP , the current design will be clogged up within a couple of rains.The are just shallow pipes. Long term implications is that a desert kind of environment around tender sure roads.
 
b)The no further digging by services issue: According to some in BWWSB, the design allows for current building load by way of ducts. As soon as redevelopment of properties happen, and this will happen quite a bit in CBD, digging up will be inevitable.
 
c)Trees: in many places and in general , tender sure roads do not allow for planting of new trees.
 
d)The methodology adopted in "pushing thro" tender sure is suspect: currently it is run by Chief secretary not the council, and CS has in a formal letter banned BBMP engineers  to visits the sites.
 
Caveat: some of the above ( BWSSB issues) are hearsay and need to be corroborated.am quite sure of the water percolation issue , new trees and CS issues.
 
Mixed feeling about this scheme , so only a nuanced approach should be  taken.However there does not seem to be much doubt  that the exercise has been opaque and strong armed thro the mayor (or even by passed  from council, standing committees). Have stayed away from fighting this case since don't  how to take a "nuanced" stand  , which will not also destroy the good aspects of the scheme.
 
AR: I am reading the "no rethinking" as a good news. At some point in time we have to bite the bullet and understand that we cant perpetually expand motorways. Emphasis has to shift to over more optimal means.. 
 
RT: I agree with MV. They could have easily provided for percolation pits. I remember asking Naresh about this. And yes, the Tender Sure roads are sealing off the roads in the CBD to additional greenery. All the footpaths have a narrow gap in edge for hedges. On the Mallya Hospital Road, the BBMP had planted some Mahogany trees which had grown quite a bit. All of them are gone. Two African Tulip trees were damaged, one in the rains and one during the laying of pipes on Commissariat road. Both the spaces were the trees once stood have been paved.   
 
In New York they are reintroducing curb side gardens at a great cost since they help in recharging groundwater and reduce runoff (check here).
 
CR: I agree with you. When, after a hundred years of increasing violence on the environment, space, people, animals, vegetation and the physical relief of the land, someone is getting the priorities in right order, even if in a teeny weeny way, we have to cheer it on. It could be the beginning of a change. 
 
MHR: One good thing is that there is Space for Cyclists ! I request each one of you to revisit the BBMP office and look into the design and engineering pages of Tender sure - u will appreciate the diligent work done to create space for cyclists and pedestrians.
Secondly, the road making in india is a hard  job for any one - it is more of social engineering and less of civil engineering. I request people who are posting suggestions here - to write a letter with inputs to the commissioner.
 

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