B’lore’s decline started about 4 years back, and I kept waiting for the silver lining. It never came, and I don’t see it coming in the near future. The truth is B’lore is dead. Reasons?
No roads: Even major roads in the CBD are in deplorable condition. Imagine what the state of the rds are in the residential areas.
No Footpaths: Apart from MG Rd & Brigade Rd, no other roads in the city have footpaths wide enough to walk on. Most of the footpaths, if present, force you to walk sideways (because they’re so narrow) or will have gaping holes every 10 feet.
Dusty: The city is an asthmatics nightmare. As it is the pollen count in B’lore was always high. But the city is so dusty that it makes even healthy people gasp for breath. Roads are swept everyday, but are just collected in one corner, waiting to be spread all over again.
Traffic: Most rds are quite narrow. Even the few 6 lane rds in the city are reduced to 4 lanes thanks to unusable outer lanes. The roads in the CBD are very narrow and are intersected by junctions very often. Coupled with absolute disregard to road sense, traffic moves at a snails pace.
Expensive: The city is quite expensive. To rent a house, you need to cough up almost a years rent as advance. A decent 2 bedroom house in a decent locality will not cost you less than 10K. So that translates to an advance of Rs1, 00, 000/-! Fruits, vegetables, services etc are all quite expensive. Petrol in B’lore is the most expensive in the whole of India!
-Rickshaws: These 3 wheeled nuisances are a huge liability to the city. Firstly they pollute. Secondly they overcharge. Thirdly they drive like maniacs. And finally, the most irritating of all, they just don’t seem to go anywhere. Why do we need these contraptions on the roads? They’re just occupying space on the already sparse roads.
-No Entertainment: The cops are very strict on entertainment. The pea-brained cops force considers tasteful live musical shows in restaurants and bars as immoral! Dancing in discos is banned. Yes, you heard that right!
-Nonsense deadline: The city has to shut at 11:30PM. That includes shops, bars and even restaurants. All places take the last order by 10:45PM itself to ensure that everybody is out by 11:30PM sharp. Because if they don’t, the cops will raid the place and lathi charge anything that moves. Consider this: You leave your office by 8PM. Drive through the rush hour traffic. Reach home by 9 PM. Have a shower and freshen up. It’s already 10:00. You drive to a restaurant, it’s 10:30. You’d be lucky if the waiters take your order. Else, you’d be going back home on an empty stomach. Oh yeah, unless you’re like really rich and can cough up money (like our millionaire lawmakers/cops commissioner) to eat at 24 hour coffee shops in 5 star hotels.
Garbage: There are no garbage bins in the city. So if you need to get rid of something, you need to a) carry it with you b) throw it in the corner. These corners are neglected by the waste disposal units until they resemble hillocks. These hillocks are then cleared after a couple of months. Even that cleaning is shoddy. God save you if you live next to an empty plot. Most empty plots serve as dumping grounds.
Nonsense projects: The Municipal Corporation wastes lot of money. Instead of concentrating on necessary projects like less-pot-holed roads, garbage disposal, maintenance of foot paths etc, they will erect a fountain that stops working in 1 month. Or they’ll erect a concrete arch. Or they’ll build a two-lane flyover, or perhaps a flyover with a signal, use the road below the flyover as a parking lot (A flyover is supposed to double the road area by having one road on top of another. What’s the use of the flyover if the road below isn’t a road anymore?) Or re-tar the 3 pothole free roads in B’lore - Airport Road, Cubbon Rd & Raj Bhavan Rd (The route from the airport to the Secretariat, of course)
No Mass Transit: At least not yet. And from the way things are going and the way things have gone in the past, we’d be lucky to see the Metro within the next 10 years. So now everybody has to depend on a) their own vehicles (add to the traffic+most expensive petrol) b) the overburdened BMTC c) The hell-sent rickshaw (hmmm, actually they’re more ornamental than utilitarian considering that they never go where you want to go) Ok, I’ve exceeded the word limit so i’ve continued the review in the comments section....:-)