Good morning, Bengaluru!
🌦️ Today’s weather: Some sun with rain showers and a breeze.
🧐 Did you know? This year, over 6 lakh people participated in the Yogathon organised by The Karnataka Sports and Youth Empowerment Department in Bengaluru – breaking all previous records.
🚉 Suburban rail project advances
The suburban rail project’s corridor-2 line got a boost after the IAF agreed to transfer their land at Jalahalli.
Story so far: On Friday, the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE) announced that the Indian Air Force (IAF) has agreed to transfer its land at Jalahalli for the suburban rail project. The agreement was officiated through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
- The corridor-2 line, also called the Mallige line, spans 25.2 km from Benniganahalli to Chikkabanavara. From the drawing board, it’s crossed over to the inkling of a railroad.
- The MoU comes with the completion of most preliminary works like surveys, geotechnical investigation, and boundary wall construction.
Operation status: Three batching plants for construction will be set up at Jalahalli, Hebbal, and Benniganahalli. After preliminary works are complete, the Jalahalli plant should be the first to become operational.
👩🏽🎨 Aravani Art Project: Safe spaces through art
The Aravani Art Project is an Indian public art collective founded by Bengaluru-based Poornima Sukumar.
Story so far: Since its inception in 2016, the Aravani Art Project, a platform for transgender and cisgender women artists, has been painting captivating murals across India’s public spaces. The city-based project has grown beyond Bengaluru, with an indomitable presence in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra.
- The collective works on the streets because it’s there that people harass, violate, neglect, and discriminate against transgender bodies.
- The project has helped around 200 transgender women. It’s helped in finding alternative sources of income for the community.
Tell me more? The murals depict stories of freedom, hopes of acceptance, and underexplored cultural nuances like folk songs, myths, and traditions of the community. In 2017, the Aravani Art Project created a mural for Meta’s (previously Facebook) headquarters in California.
🛖 Caste patterns in slums
The urban landscape of Bengaluru mirrors the traditional caste patterns of villages.
Story so far: The development trajectory of Bengaluru’s neighbourhoods follows the caste patterns in the state’s villages. A study has revealed that 80% of the occupants of slums are people belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). These slums are low-lying areas situated close to the dominant-caste neighbourhoods.
- People from lower castes are forced to live outside villages, yet close enough to perform specific jobs that the upper castes wouldn’t do.
- Like the slum-and-city divide, the upper caste people in villages don’t live downstream due to discriminatory notions of purity and pollution.
Why it matters? The SC and ST population in slums is disproportionate to their overall population in the city and state. These slums face a higher chance of flooding as they abut lakes and drains.
🔊 Noise-free zones
KSPCB data shows that two designated silent zones are very close to being completely noise-free.
Story so far: Data from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) proves that two designated silent zones in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and RV College of Engineering are almost noise-free.
- The permissible sound level (dB) in a silent zone during the day is 50 dB, and during the night is 40 dB.
- At NIMHANS, the daytime average decibel value was 40.5 dB, and the nighttime average was 49 dB. Values at the RVCE, Mysuru Road, are 50.5 dB and 40 dB.
Tell me more? Officials believe the noise reduction is due to truncated waiting times at traffic signals. However, citizens in these areas attest to no such drop in noise pollution. They say the increased number of construction projects and the traffic volume has only increased the noise.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you exercise at home or the gym?
- I exercise at home.
- I go to the gym.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
Who’s your favourite local musician?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Post-poll jubilation stalled traffic in Bengaluru.
- Flower vendors profit as garlands become high in demand amid Karnataka poll results.
- Now free of encroachment, residents want Veerasagara Lake to be maintained.
- Urban Bengaluru stays with the BJP.
- Pakistan will participate in the SAFF football tournament in Bengaluru.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!