BlackBerry for traffic offenders!

Bangalore's traffic cops have been issued BlackBerry devices to better manage the chaotic and helter skelter traffic. I have serious doubts this will work. It is not technology that will bring about change. One may have the best hitech gadgets but if the cop on the street is corrupt then nothing will change. How many times haven't we seen traffic cops regularly pocketing cash to look the other way from HTVs and other chronic traffic offenders? The issue is not the cop but the fact that he is paid peanuts and treated like shit. And we expect him to be a paragon of virtue and probity. Alongwith modern gadgets the police department should also pay their men very well, send the best of them abroad to see how their counterparts work, equip them with modern motorcycles and patrol cars and most importantly inculcate a sense of pride and professionalism in the force so that educated middle class youngsters will be motivated to join the force. The police dept needs to take a 360 degree view of the traffic situation in Bangalore city and chalk out short, medium and long term strategies encompassing modernisation of equipment, training, pay and allowances and dialogue with the public. Just providing Blackberry devices will not help. I will take a bet these will be consigned to the dustbin in less than 6 months time!

High speed rail link and expressway to BIA

It was indeed amusing to read in the papers this morning (Mar 13 '08) that the government is planning to build a high speed rail link to the BIA (Bengaluru International Airport) along the Bellary Road as well as an elevated expressway parallel to each other. Can you imagine the complete, utter chaos on the ground while this goes on? Just building one flyover is so chaotic for our Palike and infrastructure companies and they have the audacity to dream of such plans where the construction of two mega projects will go on simultaneously at the same spot? Sometimes the Press needs to closely examine all this bombastic rhetoric and see if it stands up to reason. They just can't report whatever tripe the bureaucrats and politicians dish out on a regular basis.

By the way has anyone in the Karnataka government even thought of merging the high speed rail link and the expressway? There are many examples of such multi-purpose infrastructure which can serve both rail and road transport. The construction can be double decker with the high speed rail on one level and the road on the second level. Both objectives can be accomplished at one go instead of two separate agencies trying to execute some grandiose plans on their own with no co-ordination and of course spending thousands of crores of public money. As we say in Kannada - 'Whose father, what goes?'

It is imperative that the Karnataka government now sets up a nodal authority to plan and execute all infrastructure projects leading to the BIA instead of several stakeholders trying to do their own thing which could lead to tremendous wastage of resources and over capacity. Even worse it will divert precious resources from other equally important infrastructure projects for the city and the overall development of the state.