We just missed the bus

We just missed the bus
The Hindu

Bangalore's traffic snarls wouldn't have assumed such nightmarish proportions if only we had trams

Bangalore would not have been facing the unimaginable traffic snarls if the powers that be had decided to introduce trams in the city a century ago. In 1896, Messrs. Arbuthnot and Co. of Madras, agents to the General Electric Tramway Company Ltd., applied for permission to the Bangalore City Municipality to run the electric tramway within the city Municipal limits on concession, similar to what the Government of Madras had granted them.

The Municipality appointed a sub-committee, whose members visited Madras to assess the viability and submitted their report in favour of introducing tramways in the city. The cost of laying the tramway in the city was estimated as Rs. 6,75,530, and two routes, one from Basavanagudi to Cantonment via Fort, Doddpet Chowk, Yelahanka Chowk, Public Office and General Post Office; and the second route was from Yelahanka Chowk to Malleswaram via Dharmambudi tank and City Railway station. But the scheme did not receive the approval of the Hovernment due to cost constraints.

The first buses

Around 1927, C.M. Garudachar, proprietor of the Bangalore City Motor Service, introduced buses in Bangalore. The jutka owners resented this move as they felt that their livelihood would be threatened. They damaged the buses, obstructed their movement and even held a demonstration in front of the Diwan's residence. The hackney carriages and jutkas continued to operate as the rich didn't feel comfortable travelling by public buses along with other passengers. There were laws which prohibited driving of jutkas faster than three miles per hour within city limits. Similarly, the speed limit for motor vehicles on public roads was 10 miles an hour, and 15 miles an hour for driving in other parts of the city.

Water to Bangalore city was originally supplied from the Dharmambudi tank (the present city bus stand). From this tank, water was routed to the streets through channels and collected by the people from square troughs or basins called karanjis at convenient points. Other tanks which supplied water was Sampangi (the present Kanteerava stadium premises), Karanji, Kempambudhi, Shoolay (the present football stadium), Ulsoor, and Miller's tank. There were a number of people whose occupation was to simply carry pots of drinking water to those who could afford it.

On June 23, 1896, filtered water was pumped into the city from the Hessaraghatta reservoir. Growth of the city and increase in population led to scarcity of water, which necessitated the Government to think of various options, resulting in the building of the Thippagondanahalli project in 1933. To meet the ever-growing demand for water it was decided to tap the Cauvery, as a result of which the Cauvery First Stage project was taken up in 1969 and completed in 1974. So far, Phase I of the Stage IV has been completed.

Soon after the establishment of the Municipal Board in Bangalore, efforts were made to provide the streets with kerosene-lit lampposts. Since this job was done on a contract basis, the Municipality had appointed a Lighting Inspector, whose job was to see whether the lamps were lit or not; to suggest areas that were in need of lampposts, check the efficiency of the lamps and so on. The lights had to be kept on from six in the evening to four next morning. Defective lighting warranted fines slapped on the contractors.

With the generation of electric power at Shivanasamudra, electricity was provided to Bangalore city for the lighting of streets and for industrial purposes. Later, electric connections were provided to houses. The electric installation in the city was completed in August 1905 at an estimated cost of Rs. 8 lakhs and was inaugurated by John Hewett. The Cantonment area of Bangalore was provided with electric streets lights by the end of 1907.

The electricity rates payable by householders was two and a half annas per unit. In order to save electricity, the Electricity Department used to switch off streetlights on full moon days.

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In my last column, I erroneously mentioned the construction cost of the Victoria Hospital as Rs.70,000. The figure should have been Rs. 7,00,000. The omission of the zero is regretted. (There was also a letter by Raghavendra Rao in this regard.)

This figure (Rs. 7 lakhs) is mentioned in The Bangalore District Hand Book by T. Rangaswami, District Economic Superintendent, Mysore Government, published in 1930. The City of Bangalore-Municipal Hand Book published by the Bangalore City Municipal council in 1931 mentions that the Victoria Hospital was constructed at a cost of nearly Rs. 8 lakhs, while the Karnataka State Gazetteer (Bangalore District), gives the figure as Rs. 7.5 lakhs.