r2i forum

I read the other thread about Bangalore with great interest, but it got narrowed down to the real estate situation alone.

I lived and worked in Bangalore before I immigrated to Silicon Valley a decade ago. I am now planning to return to Bangalore. I bought land in Bangalore few years ago, have friends in Bangalore and so on.

My parents had the opportunity to live in Bangalore for 2 years. They could not handle the place, the traffic and general inability to move from one place to another [BTM to Indira Nagar, for instance] to visit relatives or even do simple stuff.

My friends in Bangalore caution me against relocating to Bangalore - "If you can avoid it, don't even think about it" is what they say.

So, how livable is Bangalore? Has anyone in this forum r2 bangalore? What are your experiences?

Please don't make this a Hyderabad / Chennai is better than Bangalore post. I want to hear objective opinions about Bangalore's living conditions. Let us ignore real estate also out of this picture since it has been covered in that thread.

My take is based on when I visited last year. I think Bangalore has grown leaps and bounds over Chennai and Hyderabad in the last few years. There are a lot of attractive outlets for entertainment and living an enjoyable life for a returning NRI family of 4. Its a great cosmopolitan environment for kids to grow up in.

The only real problem is infrastructure. Traffic, roads, electricity etc. I noticed that even in non rush hour the traffic only moves in inches and I am a middle class guy and used autos everywhere to go around. Even the auto guys find it difficult to navigat the traffic its so closely packed in. If you drive on your own it really could turn into a nightmare. Many major roads that were formerly two-way are now one-way. Its funny to see vehicles on both sides of the median moving in the same direction. I had to breath the pollution in an auto so that turned out be a nightmare but if you have an AC car you could do without that. I also heard that there are regular powercuts every day.

To me it seems that the IT development in any city comes with major infrastructure issues. It almost seems like you are better of as a second tier IT destination than strain the resources of the city to the max trying to be the leader. But the pros of it is that you have a great social life, better job prospects etc.

2 IBD - Agree with your comments.

Bangalore is nice when you are at office (most IT offices are really good), at home (most residential complexes are excellent) and it provides good entertainement and other choices. But once you are out of your office, home, theatre, mall it is a plain nightmare....

Infra and utilties are under severe pressure.

But is not much different from other developing cities. Pune is worse than Bangalore in terms of roads and infra.

b2b that is definitely not good to hear. Pune was my second choice. hmmm :confused:

Thanks for the replies.

I have been visiting Bangalore every year or so. But when I am in Bangalore for 3-4 days, I tend to travel a lot and see it with infrared glasses :). You don't get the hang of day to day life when you visit for short durations.

Yes, I lived in Pune for a while and my colleague who visited Pune last week says pretty much the same about Pune too.

I am really interested in hearing from people who returned to Bangalore and how they cope with it.

The number of job opportunities in bangalore is tremendous and will keep increasing as more and more companies continue to move to bangalore. But the infrastructure was not built to support this rapid growth. They are working on an underground subway line which will be ready in 8-10 years. Traffic conditions should get better after that. Lots of entertainement options which include Amoeba (games arcade), Multiplex movie theaters, malls, pubs.. You can consider Mysore which has climate conditions and job opportunities similar to bangalore with lesser traffic conditions. Try to find work close to your home so your commute wont be bad. If you live in SanjayNagar and your office is in Electronics City, its going to take 4 hours to commute one way which will be annoying.

>>>They are working on an underground subway line which will be ready in 8-10 years. Traffic conditions should get better after that.

That will be a terrible mistake. Going by the past record of intl airport, metro is more complicated as it runs thru the city. You will have issues with land acquisition, blocking the already choked roads during construction, moving the underground water pipe, phone lines etc. In Delhi the metro was completed in 5 years due to the presence of Central govt and some good leadership skills. KA govt is unable to build smooth roads without potholes. When the metro project comes up, there will be many political parties fighting for contracts and delay the project like airport and Blr-Mysore highway.

I would not like to live in BLR during the construction phase of metro. By the time it gets over, I will be retired, so no need to go there. BTW one of my friend who is a local and lives there for the past 20 years, says "come to Bangalore if you want to see hell".

Is Bangalore liveable? Opinions will be subjective w/ no definite answer...

To answer simply, yes it is liveable for millions of people. Someone upgrading from anyone of the many "not so livable" cities in India would agree. OTOH, the city is "un-liveable" by any of the many worldclass cities (including asian ones)

I guess you are asking how uncomfortable is it for day-to-day living? Has it changed for the worse over the years? What ills plague the city w.r.t to day-to-day life? Is there room for improvement in civic amenities?

W/o comparing w/ any other city in particular - BLR has the following problems.

o Water problems, cleanliness and hygiene, pollution, population, infrastructure, corruption, laissez faire attiudes and apathy, unbriddled growth, jingoism, poverty, street-dogs, etc. etc.

(Digression alert - Admitting it, highlighting it, and taking action would only serve a good purpose. Being in denial or taking a stance that says BLR is better than XYZ city in India is the wrong approach. My advise to those who wear their love for BLR on their sleeves is this, if you must compare, compare it w/ Shangai, or Singapore, or HongKong and try to improve)

As for my subjective and personal opinion, Bangalore is unlivable, but what makes it work for me is my personal background.