I saw this traffic police shelter at the island near Windsor Manor, and was tickled to find that the roof was a “folded hat” to match the hats that the traffic constables wear! Nice touch by whoever has designed the shelter!
Bangalore, 16 November 2013
Tucked away in the rushed, hurried environment of the City Railway Station is a most unexpected oasis…an art gallery.
Indian Railways have, indeed, been promoting art of late. The underground passage that connects up the various platforms in the City Station have been embellished with photographs and art, themed on the railways, and travel.
The art gallery is one more praiseworthy initiative in this connection.
So folks, if you find yourself with time to spare, do visit the Rail Art Gallery …it’s between Platforms 5 and 6…and enjoy a little art while you travel!
he Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) has now opened a FaceBook page.
The page states:
This is the official BESCOM Page, containing information about Interruptions and BESCOM Procedures. The Meeting Proceedings [ORM/CRM/Board Meeting etc] will be available in this Page. You may post your grievances here which will be attended and resolved. But for any immediate grievances please feel free to contact our central helpline 080-22873333 or just SMS your grievance to 92431 50000 in the format given below
BESCOMSub-Divisionnature_of_complaint
BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) has opened a new Face Book page, in a customer-friendly initiative:
to go the FB page.
The FB page is NOT purely a Grievence Redressal Forum. However, they are working to provide help for general public and consumers to know about BESCOM procedures.
This page will also include the PPP Collaborations, and the participation of various NGOs[such as Ugly Indians] with BESCOM, to improve our services,and to achieve our goal of becoming No.1 in Customer Satisfaction in South Asia. Public suggestions oand opinions can also be posted. BESCOM officials, Helpline staff or any member of the page can post poetry, or writing, too.
Surely, that last line is one of the most unusual I have seen on any Government website (leave alone the fact that Government departments don’t have FB pages!). The MD of BESCOM, Mr Manivannan, is no mean wordsmith himself, and wants to encourage any literary talent on the part of his staff as well.
My suggestion for this FB page is that the names of the staffers associated with it should also be given; it should not be a faceless entity, like much of the Government is. This will certainly encourage a n atmosphere of transparency.
Wishing Mr Manivannan, Ms. Jayanti, and others in BESCOM the very best for such worthy initiatives!
The Managing Director of BESCOM, Mr Manivannan, has been spearheading a movement on FaceBook, to bring various facets of this hitherto opaque Government organization to the public. Various initiatives have been launched, and the latest is his attempt to describe how electricity makes it into our homes from where it is generated. Here is the process, in his own words:
HOW does electricity, generated at the Raichur Thermal Power Plant (RTPS) come to your home in Bangalore?
It’s interesting and important to know how electricity reaches your home. It may explain you why the supply is cut off at times, and it will also enable you to advise/suggest ways for improvement. The electricity generated at RTPS (or any other station) reaches your house in five steps.
1. Transmission from RTPS to Bangalore. The transmission of electricity happens at a very high voltage, 400 kilovolts (4,00,000 volts!). The huge towers one sees when one drives through Neelamangala/Peenya, are the towers that carry electricity at 400 KV. These lines end up at huge stations, called Master Receiving Stations. These receive the electricity at 400 KV, and they then reduce the voltage to 220 KV, using huge transformers in the station. These transformers are called power transformers. They are of 500 MW capacity, enough to power almost 1/4th of Bangalore city, and as huge as your drawing room! For Bangalore city, we have 3 such 400 KV Master Receiving stations: Nelamangala in the North, Hoody in the east, and Somanahalli in the south. When these stations trip, we have major outage in the city.
2. From these Master Receiving Stations, the electricity comes out at 220 KV, and it is sent to Receiving Stations, which are situated inside the city at different locations. In the Receiving stations, the electricity is further reduced to 66 KV. Yes, as you guessed, here also we have same Power Transformers, which reduce the voltage from 220 KV to 66 KV. We have 15 such Receiving stations in Bangalore.
3. Now, the electricity, reduced to 66 KV , goes from the Receiving stations to the sub-stations. These transmission can be done through smaller towers, or even underground via UG cables). The sub-stations receive the electricity at 66 KV, and reduce it to 11 KV, again using similar transformers There are 90 such sub-stations in the Bangalore city itself!
4. Electricity leaves the sub-station in trunk lines, called ‘Feeders’. Each sub-station has 10-15 such trunk lines emanating from it, and the lines branch to different locations around the sub-station. These feeders end up in DTCs (Distribution Transformer Centers), which are commonly called just ‘transformers’ which we keep seeing everyday at the side of the roads. These transformers, in turn, reduce the voltage to 440 volts.
5. These 440 volt lines, which emanate from your neighborhood transformers, come to your home meter/switch board mains finally.
In these 5 steps, electric power flows through 1000 of kilometers, or lines, and hundreds of nuts and bolts. If, at any point, there is a loose connection of fault, then you have an outage.
In this journey, the first 3 steps come under the jurisdiction and control of Karnataka Power Transmission Company Ltd (KPTCL). Thus any fault till 66 KV is attended by them. The last 2 steps come under BESCOM. That is, from the sub-station to your home.
Thus, providing power to you 24×7 requires all the three to work in tandem; the RTPS, the KPTCL and the BESCOM. All of us work round the clock, to ensure 24×7 power supply to you. And yes, we feel pride in serving you!:)
Thanks to Antony Dass T for this pictorial representation:
My friend Sravana Dasary posted this:
That’s a great way to document the fact that her family’s voted!
Each of us needs to vote, to take an active part in our own governance…to ensure that the nasties and the goons don’t reign over us.
So…what does YOUR finger say? Have you voted? I hope you have!
I’ve been interacting, on FaceBook, with the MD of BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Corporation), Mr Manivannan (though our interaction is not mainly on civic issues..he’s quite a poet!). I have been getting the sense that he’s shaking up this behemoth and making them more accountable and user-friendly.
I realized that if I was going to be away for a long time, I could ask for minimum billing on my apartment. I wrote to the contact email (Ms Jayanathi) on the BESCOM website…and promptly got a return email from her, telling me whom I had to contact, and the phone nos…and additional ones if I wanted more details.
The first few times I called Mr Lokesh, the AE at J P Nagar 6th Phase office, there was no response on the mobile. However, a couple of days ago, he responded, and told me what to do. Since my electricity bill is paid by ECS (Electronic Clearance Service), it was even simpler…I did not even have to pay anything in advance by cheque. He told me to bring a letter asking for the minimum billing, and a copy of my latest electricity bill, for reference.
When I went to the BESCOM office, of course, I did get some of the usual runaround. I Go to Desk A, Desk A says Go to Desk B, Desk B says Go to Desk A, I say, Desk A sent me here, Desk B says go to Desk C, Desk C says go to Desk D…at this point, I ask why I am being sent from desk to desk in this way. I take Mr Lokesh’s name, and say that he asked me to come here. The mention of the name has a salutary effect. The person at Desk B takes up my paper, and goes through the records on the computer. He tells me that I will be billed only the minimum charges for the time period that I have specified in my letter. I come home, rather happy. I will have to check from the US, online, if my account is, indeed, getting debited with only the minimum charge.
Change happens slowly…but with a dynamic person at the top, it IS happening. I want to thank Mr. Manivannan, and other officers down the line, for making things easier for us consumers.
From the 10th of September, 2011, a new “Bangalore One” has come up in the Mini Forest:
Of course the names and faces of the politicians have to be displayed nearby, as well:
Well, whoever wants to take credit, this new office of Bangalore One will be a great boon for residents in J P Nagar and neighbouring areas, who had, up to now, to go to Banashankari or Jayangar 4th Block if they wanted to book their tickets (not online.)
Alas, the day I went to book tickets because I could not book on the Railways website, the website was down there, too, and I was told …to go to Banashankari or Jayanagar 4th Block!
The Government of Karnataka in association with Karnataka State
Archery Association is organizing “Archery Camp” on 19th & 20th March,
2011 in
the premises of Sree Kanteerava Stadium, B’lore. This is to encourage
Archery
and create awareness in the game of Archery in the State.
This camp is primarily meant for the beginners/amateurs without
age limitations.
1. Open to groups of IT and BT employees/Journalists.
2. Open to other individuals.
3. Open to groups from Educational Institutions.
4. No age restrictions.
5. No entrance fee or any other fee.
6. Professional Archers are not eligible.
Interested persons may attend the practice/coaching session on
19-03-2011 between 10.00 AM to 4.00 PM. The competition will be held
on Sunday 20th March, 2011 from 10.00 AM onwards. All participants
will be given a Certificate from the Government of Karnataka.
Kindly confirm the approximate number of participants from your
side. For any additional information and entry please contact Deputy
Director, Sports Authority of Karnataka, Kasturba Road, Bangalore-01.
Phone No: 080-22214044/25424322/2215601
Fax No : 080-22244962/22215602/22275656
Mobile No: 9845615584/9483502800/9449345445
Yours faithfully
sd/
Director General
SPORTS AUTHORITY OF KARNATAKA Bangalore.
I was travelling back from Delhi when I saw a young man, also boarding for the same flight, who had an interesting looking trophy with him:
I said hello to him, congratulated him because he had obviously won something, and asked what it was about. “This is the trophy that Karnataka won this year, for the best float in the Republic Day Parade,” he replied. “We’ve won it a few times in the past, and if we win three years running, the rolling trophy will become ours.”
Having, rather uncharacteristically, missed watching the Republic Day Parade this year as I was out of town and on the road, I asked him what the theme for Karnataka had been. “This time, we showcased Bidriware,” he said.
This prize for Karnataka somehow does not seem to have made it to the newspapers, but I was very proud to see the trophy! Gireesha L P, who is the Assistant Director, Karnataka Information Centre, in New Delhi, told me that the process of deciding the theme and making the float start several months in advance. Though a large group of artisans had been making the float, three Bidri artisans were flown to Delhi to take part in the actual parade.
I came back to Bangalore from Delhi, feeling quite happy about the distinction our State achieved in the Republic Day Parade!
India - Nature, Travel And Birding 