Is this what we call 'Progress'?
Once termed 'retirement paradise', Bangalore has come a long long way. I was very young to understand all the IT boom that took over the place in the early 90s and had no idea the city would grow this much. A lack of planning and vision has ensured a lot of suffering for quite sometime to come.
After quite a lot of observation, I'm struggling to cope up with this 'growth' term. Yes, it's expanded at a rapid pace but where is the necessary infrastructure? Where is the beautiful greenery? Where's the awesome weather that made Bangalore so famous in the first place?
A lot of noise was created around the 'Namma Metro' recently. Sheer lack of planning has made it a spectacular failure. It's not that the route by itself is not perfect, but also the fact that the workers over there have done a half *** job! Huge trenches, massive potholes, pimpled roads are only the icing on the cake dare I say. Make no mistake, I'm a huge fan of the city. However, a commute of around 50km a day makes you think about your choice. The traffic is miserable, drivers are rude, roads are narrow, massive road rage, uneducated pedestrians, noisy autos and worst of all, dust from these so called 'development' projects are some of the challenges faced by many of us.
All these ambitious plans which have been drawn a\to attract investors have don nothing but ruin the city of some of it's best traits. Not to mention their execution is ridiculously slow, badly planned and there is a serious lack of vision. What's more annoying is that everything is planned with 'tomorrow' in mind, giving a damn about today! To give you a fair example, I work at a tech park which houses close to 80,000 of us at any point of the day. So, the obvious thing to do is ensure good connectivity and infrastructure much before the place is built. But oh no! A flyover construction which has been going on for over a year now is barely seeing light of the day. It's a disaster on s many counts considering that there are those who miss meetings and the lot simply because the situation is so chaotic.
Everytime I come back to my hometown from any of my drives, there's a stark reminder that I'm here. No it's not the buildings or the malls, it's the dust and pollution. The city's lost so much of it's charm and beauty. As I type this post, there are several more projects coming up which are sacrificing iconic roads and locations in the name of progress.
When will Bangalore regain itself? I'm not sure it will.
After quite a lot of observation, I'm struggling to cope up with this 'growth' term. Yes, it's expanded at a rapid pace but where is the necessary infrastructure? Where is the beautiful greenery? Where's the awesome weather that made Bangalore so famous in the first place?
A lot of noise was created around the 'Namma Metro' recently. Sheer lack of planning has made it a spectacular failure. It's not that the route by itself is not perfect, but also the fact that the workers over there have done a half *** job! Huge trenches, massive potholes, pimpled roads are only the icing on the cake dare I say. Make no mistake, I'm a huge fan of the city. However, a commute of around 50km a day makes you think about your choice. The traffic is miserable, drivers are rude, roads are narrow, massive road rage, uneducated pedestrians, noisy autos and worst of all, dust from these so called 'development' projects are some of the challenges faced by many of us.
All these ambitious plans which have been drawn a\to attract investors have don nothing but ruin the city of some of it's best traits. Not to mention their execution is ridiculously slow, badly planned and there is a serious lack of vision. What's more annoying is that everything is planned with 'tomorrow' in mind, giving a damn about today! To give you a fair example, I work at a tech park which houses close to 80,000 of us at any point of the day. So, the obvious thing to do is ensure good connectivity and infrastructure much before the place is built. But oh no! A flyover construction which has been going on for over a year now is barely seeing light of the day. It's a disaster on s many counts considering that there are those who miss meetings and the lot simply because the situation is so chaotic.
Everytime I come back to my hometown from any of my drives, there's a stark reminder that I'm here. No it's not the buildings or the malls, it's the dust and pollution. The city's lost so much of it's charm and beauty. As I type this post, there are several more projects coming up which are sacrificing iconic roads and locations in the name of progress.
When will Bangalore regain itself? I'm not sure it will.
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