After the hike in Diesel prices in the union budget the NWKRTC has hiked bus fares for both city buses and long distance routes.

City bus fares were hiked in January 2010 and in 2 months there is another hike of Rs.1 per stage.

Yesterday fares have been hiked by Re.1 for every stage and on long distance route it varies from Rs.3 to Rs.30.

City bus fares:

Previous New price

From CBT to Tilakwadi 7 8

From CBT to Vadagaon 7 8

From CBT to Guruprasad Colony 8 9

From CBT to Bogarves 5 6

Inter city bus fares:

Belgaum – Kolhapur – previous 69 now 72

Belgaum – Dharwad – Previous 49 now 52

Belgaum – hubli – Prenious 63 now 69

Belgaumite Niranjan Sant recently won a special mention award for his photo Chameleon walk from the RBS-Santuary Asia magazine Sanctuary-RBS wildlife awards 2009.

Niranjan Sant is a great nature lover and one of India’s most admired wildlife photographers. He makes time from his busy work schedule to visit all corners of India to photograph birds and nature – but his first love would appear to be Belgaum in coastal Karnataka where he spends most of his time. Niranjan has co-authored books and articles on our birds.

award winning photo

You can see his photos here.

The Ashwathama Temple in Pangul Galli in the city is the sole temple in south India and the second in the entire country.

There is an annual fest on the second day after Holi, which was yesterday. All devotes do a “Lotangan” and water is thrown on the devotees from all the houses.

In Pangul galli, a large number devotees performed “Lotangan puja” (“urulu seve”) at Ashwathama temple. It is believed that people do the Lotangan after their wish has been granted by the lord.

The temple in the narrow street of Pangul Galli houses the idol of the cursed mythical warrior.

On Monday, a large number of devotees made a beeline to perform the lotangan, even as onlookers kept splashing ‘gulal’ on them.

A special pooja was also performed and the temple committee distributed prasad. However, not many visit this shrine during rest of the year thanks to the curse attached to Ashwathama, who was believed to have killed the sons of the Pandavas. It is believed that seeing the idol brings bad luck.

Source: The Hindu

Festival of colors HOLI is being celebrated in the city with great enthusiasm.
A major crowd puller this time was the program organised by MLA Abhay Patil on Lele Ground named Holi milan, where there were sprinklers, dry color and separate areas for men and ladies where all could enjoy.

There also was live orchestra with foot tapping songs for the crowd to go mad.

The young crowd normally seen on Deshmukh road was not seen as most of them were on Lele ground but later the Deshmukh road also saw its old glory.

At holi milan

Ladies enjoying themselves

Kids spreading the colors of love

Crowds dancing to the music and throwing colorsLive orchestra

Traditioal dancers

Bizzare secne of tearing each others clothes

kid with a pichkari and tank behind Traditional dancers

MLA Abhay Patil at the venue

Dry colors being spread

abhay Patil being colored

Police have made elaborated security arrangements to prevent any untoward incident during Holi and Id Milad celebrations from February 28 to March 5.

Dhulvad (colors) will be played on March 1, in Shahpur and other areas Rangpanchami will be played on March 5.

Certain restrictions have been imposed by the Police.

People have been warned against splashing colours on vehicles or strangers and complete “holika-burning” by midnight of February 28.

People have also been warned against using tar, varnish, paints, acid, etc. Police in civil uniform will also be deployed at certain main areas and video shooting will also be done.

There are Prohibitory order for the sale of liquor in the district on account of Holi and Id Milad from 6 a.m. on February 28 for 48 hours and from 6 a.m. of March 5 for 24 hours.

The market is also all ready with various kinds of Pchkari’s, guns and colors of course. Today being Saturday, there was huge rush seen for buying Live chicken in the market.
The main areas where the young crowd have loads of fun is Deshmukh road in Tilakwadi, which virtually is filled with people and then the bad part of tearing each others clothes begins which is bizarre.

Puravankara Projects Limited has appointed Jackbastian Kaitan Nazareth as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). Prior to joining Puravankara, Jack, as he is known among friends, was the Executive Director of Sobha Developers Ltd overseeing their International operations, based out of Dubai.

Jack did his schooling from St.Pauls high school (1983) has a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Gogte institute of Technology Belgaum(1990) and an MBA from the Goa Institute of Management with a specialization in Marketing and Finance.

He started his career as an entrepreneur with M/s. Trinity Consultants and Engineers in Belgaum and Goa. Apart from handling International operations at Sobha Developers, he had also handled Sales, Marketing, CRM, Corporate Affairs and Facility management in the past. He was also associated with Tishman Speyer as Managing Director, Head -Sales & Marketing in their Bangalore office.

Acknowledging the new assignment, Jack said: “We need to create a vision whereby our name becomes synonymous with excellence, innovation, honor, integrity and outstanding quality and service. As COO at Puravankara, I am looking forward to all the new challenges that come our way and will draw on tried-and-tested experience as well as introduce new thinking and approaches where feasible.”

Jack told this blog that, “ he is one of those many Belgaumites who got the best education, climate and vegetables and all I needed was to pursue a dream to fulfill. I learnt languages and made friends in that place who are still close to my heart. And when you have what life truly has to give you, it becomes a passion to pursue perfection.
I am truly blessed to be what I am today and I owe it to my family, friends and above all my Alma Mater St. Pauls. The Jesuits turned around my life twice, once at St. Pauls and then at Goa Institute of Management, Goa.
GIT was just about 3 idiots, infact we were many idiots so to say. Am so glad that all of the students are doing well in life.
But all said and done there is no place on earth that gives you the language ‘kaay be’ or the chai of the railway station. From Mahantesh Nagar to Udyambag and from Ganeshpur to the Dhabas on Bangalore highway, Belgaum reckons me to be back there And I will maybe retire there in the company of the wonderful friends that I made there and the large family that still lives life to the full. Belgaum it is and I am a Belgaum boy!”

Puravankara Group began operations in Mumbai and has established a considerable presence in the real estate industry in the metropolitan cities of Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mysore and overseas in Dubai.

In todays rail budget presented by Mamata Banerjee, the long awaited demand for the Belgaum – Dharwad rail line has been approved by the rail minister and work should hopefully begin on the same in this fiscal. The said new line will be in cost sharing with state government and Public Private partnership. No specif time period has been mentioned for the beginning and completion of the work in the budget. So its only a hypothetical plan still.

Belgaum also got some surprises in the form of survey of new rail lines. They are

Belgaum-Bagalkot-Raichur & Belgaum – Sawantawadi ( the budget speech mentions this as Samantwadi must be a typo error)

These routes will be surveyed and the feasibility report will be submitted.

Bagalkot-Kudachi new rail line has been included in this budget which means work will commence on this route during this fiscal.

Adarsh Stations: Bagalkot, Gokak Road.

New trains:

Hyderabd – Chhatrapati Sahu Maharaj Terminus (Bi-weekly) and
Tirupati- Chhatrapati Sahu Maharaj Terminus(daily)

(This train was earlier linked together as Haripriya Express and Raylseema express.)

Pune-Ratnagiri-Goa-Bangalore-Mysore-Tirupati-Pune

Indian Railways provide the facility of issuing e-tickets, through IRCTC,

by utilising internet services. At present, a maximum service charge of Rs 15

for Sleeper Class and Rs.40 for AC Class tickets is levied. I propose to reduce

the maximum limit of service charge to Rs.10 for Sleeper Class and Rs.20 for

AC Class.

By Sahir Kittur & UkMaD

Can you imagine this, we at AAB did not and Sahir hunted for information on the same all over the globe from Iceland to UK and got some confirmation on the same.

There were TWO ships which were named BELGAUM, yes the ships were named Belgaum but experts in Shipping history said that, determination of a specific reason for the name was not historically available.

There are TWO ships which had the name Belgaum both were shipping trawlers.

M.V.BELGAUM RE161 YEAR :- 1916 – vessel type Steam Tug
Vessel Name: Belgaum

Record Number: 1328
Resource Identifier: flod25052006060
Fishing Number: RE161
Type of Vessel: ST
Subsequent Names: Hofdaborg
Year Constructed: 1916

Constructed By: Cochrane & Sons Ltd
Constructed At: Selby
Gross Tons: 337
Length: 140.3 ft
Beam: 24.1 ft
Depth: 13.1 ft
Subsequent Owners: Hofdaborg h/f, Reykjavik
Date Scrapped: 1954/55

M.V.BELGAUM GY218 YEAR :- 1956 Type of Vessel – Motor Tanker

Vessel Name: Belgaum

Record Number: 601750
Resource Identifier: floh24072006005
Fishing Number: GY218
Type of Vessel: MT
Official Number: 184939
Previous Names: Prince Philip
Year Constructed: 1956
Constructed By: Cook, Welton & Gemmell Ltd
Constructed At: Beverley
Gross Tons: 577
Length: 165.4 ft
Beam: 30.3 ft
Depth: 15.3 ft
Engines: Mirlees Bickerton & Day, 1050 BHP, 13 knots
Owner / Manager: Iago Steam Trawling Co
Previous Owners: Abunda Fishing F & T Ross
Subsequent Owners: Dominion Fishing
Date Scrapped: 1979
Place Scrapped: Rainham, Kent

Now the biggest question why were these vessels named as Belgaum?
We could not find an answer do you know? Come on take a guess may be you are correct.

Thanks to:
1.The Fleetwood Motor Trawler site

2.Fleetwood online Archive of Trawlers ( FLOAT )

3.Plimsollshipdata.

It has been over a year now that the Sambra(IXG) Belgaum airport is being lying un-utilized for commercial flights. The airport has been or its terminal has been upgraded recently and run way will be expanded in some time. Lets see at its glorifying history.

Time line:

1942- The Royal Air Force (RAF) established its base at Sambra

1947- Indian Airlines commenced its operations from here

1989- Private airline operators given permission

1989-93- Vayudoot Private carrier flew from here

1993-95- East West Airways Also took off from here

1994-96- NEPC Commenced its operations

1997-98- Span Airways

1998-99- Gujrat Airways

2003-09- Air Deccan (Kingfisher Red)

Night landing facility available with Popy lights and Dopler war.

Runway is 1432 metres in length and 43 meter wide

The Sambra airport dates back to 1942, when it was under the Patwardhan Sarkar of Sangli. The Patwardhan Sarkar gave permission for establishing the air base at Sambra to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in late 1942.

In 1947 Belgaum was sole city with an airport. In 1986 the airports was privatized and then later given over to the Airports authority of India. Indian Airlines had regular service from here but in late 1980’s it got dis continued and in 1989 private players like Vayudoot started operations with the Belgaum – Mumbai and Belgaum- Bangalore services.

1993-95 East west airlines flew from here and in 1994 NEPC also started operations. In 1997-98 Span Airways had its operations from here. IN 1998 Gujrat airways commenced its operations on Bangalore Belgaum Pune route but due to lack of traffic and technical reasons its stopped its operations. In 1999 air services from Sambra stopped completely.

After 1999 till 2003 the airport was being utlised by politicians and the Air force for training with no commercial flights.

In 2003 Air Deccan the low cost airline started its operations and Belgaum was back on the radar. Service was commenced on 29 September 2003 with the Mumbai – Bangalore service via Belgaum. Later due to lack of traffic only Belgaum – Bangalore service was in operation.

This airport also acted as a base during the Goa liberation movement in 1961.

Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has introduced its ‘Shivneri’ Volvo AC bus service between Pune and Bengaluru from Thursday.

The bus will depart from MSRTC’s Swargate depot at 5.30 pm daily and will reach Bengaluru next day at 8.45 am.

Worst part you cannot book tickets on-line and the website mentions that one can alight at Belgaum but cannot board. This must be specific to on line booking only. Also I was unable to get the timings the bus would come arrive at Belgaum. One more fault I could not book a return ticket from Bangalore to Pune or Belgaum. Anyways people wishing can book it online here .

http://public.msrtcors.com/ticket_booking/index.php

The same bus will leave Bengaluru for Pune at 6.15 pm and reach here next morning at around 9.30 am.

The one-way journey from Pune to Bengaluru, which would cover Kolhapur-Kagal-Belgaum-Dharwad-Hubli-Haveri-Harihar-Davangiri-Chitradurg-Tumkur stations, would cost Rs 900 per passenger.

Blankets, mineral water and newspaper will be provided free of cost to the passengers to make their journey more comfortable.

Its just over 15 days in February and the heat is on in Belgaum.

The maximum temperatures have seen a sudden rise of 5 Deg.

See the graphs for details.

Max temperature is now 35 and minimum is above 20.
At this time of the year this is above normal by 4 degrees.

This is just the beginning and we have the summer to still set in.

The sales of Fans in the past few days have increased many folds. With HESCOM continuing its hide and seek game of power supply people will be put face the heat to a greater extent.

by Satish Kumar Sr. Engineer MINDSCAPE (IMG) (Dubai)

A bigger miscalculation and miss out from our public representatives need to be show casted.

In 1982 the former CM (Late) Shri Ram Krishan Hegde (from Sirsi) envisaged the growth for Northern Karnataka, drew attention of Rail road projects, Well K-Ride did not exist though, but there something terribly something gone wrong with infrastructure policy in North Karnataka particularly Belgaum.

Shri. Hegde had evinced and proposed the survey and execution of Belgaum Bagalkote Raichur line and Belguam- Dharwad line in his tenure, there was no state central partnership then so these proposals kept eating dust.

In the recent years we have been hearing Bagalkote- Kudchi line, I am shocked to see the viability of this project, reason being it was actually Belgaum Bagalkote proposed line, Major Cement distribution companies are based in Belgaum for covering North Karnataka region, the belt has spread across from Belgaum Yadwad, Lokapur, Bagalkote and the second belt is of Sedam, Shahbad Gulbarga region so since when the Belgaum Bagalkote Raichur line, took a shift to Kudchi Bagalkote Line God only knows, I pity the foresight of these elected representatives for such non viable projected mess up

I had earlier worked chalked a project for Belgaum Bagalkote line through Sambra as junction plus integrated freight corridor ( the station actually falls off Muchhandi /Ashte village on Belgaum- Gokak road ) and further towards Nesargi , Yargatti Lokapur and Bagalkote, further from there to Bagalkote Hungund till Raichur.

I have observed many times the freight loading earlier done at Belgaum is now carried from Desur mainly Cement and Fertilizer form Zuari Agro/Vasvdatta companies, the latest addition to this will be Dalmia Cement plant commissioning near Belgaum .

Why our district representative don’t look forward for such viable and profitable projects, which would give a credible development to be around Belgaum.

Some of major advantages of Belgaum Baglakot Raichur line

1) Connecting of Border districts of Belgaum to main land of North West Karnataka.

2) New access to Raichur, Gulbarga and Hyderabad regions can be another corridor for development, by road Belgaum already serves as gateway to Goa now.

3) Tourism coverage of Sogal, Naveel teerth, Badami, Trogal forts and many more falling under this region.

4) East port linkage for coal supply form Goa port to RTPS (Raichur Thermal Power station).

5) Inland intra port connectivity of Visakhapatnam to Goa ( Naval facilitation for new base at Belgaum)

The second story of Belgaum Dharwad line via Kittur

It was surveyed and open for commissioning since last three government in the state, the key reason being if these line get implemented there will be major shift in all north bound trains from Bangalore terminating at Belgaum, to which the politicians of Hubli are opposed the fact to support this is, twin city Dharwad has to fight for rail extension of many trains terminating at Hubli. What is the use of having SWR head quarter at Hubli though serves no purpose of development of Northern Karnataka.

KRIDE ( a joint venture of State/Central Govt (projects are done cost sharing basis) Karnataka Rail Infrastructure development Establishment) evinced interest in this proposal but MR Bommai Jr. again twisted the seen on Belgaum Dharwad line via Bailhongal , a delay of another decade may be now.

The blind MP and MLAS are driving we Belgaumites vision less and just hardly have vision for City.

Bidar being last bordering district of state getting connected to main land Karnataka through Gulbarga Bidar rail line, Why not Belgaum get similar treatment.

Small cities with quarter population as that of Belgaum have trains connecting to state capital, why are we deprived of same. The new project of Belgaum station renovation will only upgrade building and some recreation facilities, what about coach filling, powering and cleaning facilities? What about shunting lines for Rake facility?

The value of Belgaum being Divisional head Quarter is too low and having N Karnataka Regional commissioner office being based here is still having dearth of these entire basic rail infrastructure requirement. (Something like Chiraag tale Andhera)

The above facts are on the basis of news and articles and my own investigations and findings. This is to make aware and spread the right vision of Belgaumites to look forward for better future , and put across views to right authorities for better future planning of Belgaum.