VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

The only city that doesn't have a visible sign showing the turn to the airport. Is that because we are a smart city?

Good time to extract our heads from the clouds and get back to basics.  Five crores spent on Balloon festival, net result? Perhaps a hundred real extra tourists on one day at ARAKU!  Cost per tourist?  You work it out. Five crores divided by 6 lakhs earning citizens of Vizag. How much did each of us contribute through our tax money for that balloon Fest? You work it out! Big noise about heli-tourism now gone phut! Interpretation centres - Rs. 1.5 crores each already spent on Thotlakonda and Bavikonda  in 2015- 2016, lying incomplete and unused for 2 years! How much loss of interest in non usable assetd? Our money squandered. Which official is responsible for this? Meanwhile no functional loos at any of our premium Buddhist sites Thotlakonda and Bavikonda! An apology of a loo at Bojjanakonda. ARAKU is a rubbish dump, road sides full of defecation, tons of garbage and plastic everywhere. The dirtiest of eastern ghat towns! Time now for govt to ...

As in January 2017 and now in Dec 2017  temple replicas have been put up on the beach for Visakha Utsav which is essentially a tourist promotion event. Cardboard temples 1.Faith is personal and the state government encouraging such mass promotion of temples in the name of tourism does not reflect a modern society. 2. The government is making a commercial "franchise" out of these temples. Like a branded store opening branches in different areas. Places of religious worship have a sanctity of its own by virtue of being there for centuries. The idea that we build Plaster of Paris models of those temples and prey upon the visitor's faith somehow appears dishonest. 3. The Constitution of India recognises all religions equally. We are a secular and pluralistic country. If we build temples why not mosques, churches and Gurudwaras? Are we making temples because we are a majority Hindu area? There is something  morally wrong in this thinking. 4. If we want religio...

There is no doubt that a vibrant filming industry not only generates welcome revenue but - if  the context of the film is right - it shows the city in favourable light making it an attractive destination. For example "Lord of the rings" NEW ZEALAND, "Game of thrones" CROATIA  or "When Harry met Sejal" in PRAGUE, AMSTERDAM,  VIENNA to name a few. Switzerland has got a thriving filming industry popularizing it's towns such as ENGELBERG. However in every such place the rules for shooting films are well defined and stringent. Especially rules against polluting the locations. In the India this is not the case. When travelling in Aru Valley Kashmir in 2015 we saw thousands of Styrofoam plates strewn in green grasslands by a film crew shooting a Hindi film. Closer to home in Anjoda on the outskirts of Araku, after every shoot, the beautiful wooded forests are full of plastic packets, plates and plastic cups. Outdoor film shoots are a mess. In Vizag...

Despite being among the first to enter the Smart City race Vizag is one of the lowest spenders so far. Talk and action are miles apart. To read more, catch up the below link on business world Smart Cities: The Sad State Of Affairs

Vizag’s word of the year is “Smart”! Ever since the US offered to develop Vizag as a smart city along with Ajmer and Allahabad the word “Smart” has permeated every Vizagite’s conscience. All you have to do to charge up a dull party is ask loudly “what exactly is this Smart city everyone is talking about?” Once that question is injected into the conversation a riot follows. The mild and polite conversation suddenly becomes animated and opinionated.  Interpretation of what a “Smart City” means flies around like a bug in a can creating quite a buzz. In the end the wise man in the corner, nursing his drink, says that it simply means that the citizens of the city should be “happy”. Then, suddenly, exhausted by the arguments, everyone calms down and becomes happy. Smartness is the answer If we go by the Webster dictionary meaning the word “smart” is defined as (a) “very good at learning or thinking about things “, (b) showing intelligence or good judgment”, (c) “behaving or ta...

Vizag's mysterious black hole Read all about it ... click on this link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Vizags-mysterious-black-hole/articleshow/46731793.cms?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=toimobile&utm_medium=referral

Being practical is being smart Published in The Times of India on 21st December 2014 Every morning our heart leaps with joy when we read about the wondrous developments that are planned for Vizag. Apparently we are going to be a smart city. The mental imagery of this idea is quite enticing. I can visualize eager young executives riding gleaming Metro coaches and the BRTS to work and back. Stylish hospitals delivering babies, who go to smart schools and universities, get qualified, and go on to work in factories and ITES companies. Tourists descending on Vizag and spend bushels of money, they go swimming, wind surfing and sun bathing in swim suits. Our elderly, fortified by excellent health services, sit at the beach (with their binoculars, ensuring that the sun bathers in swim suits are safe). All citizens living in clean green living spaces with parks and houses like in Singapore. Children play in the park and the sound of their laughter permeates the air. What a glorious wonder...

Diabolical designs Published in the Times of India on 30 Nov 2014 We Indians are poor planners and designers. It must be something to do with the imprecise fuzzy way we think. Our philosophy that it is our karma to suffer for past sins and our “ parva ledhu ” (doesn't matter) attitude doesn't help either. Whatever the reason, we must conclude that we are the reigning champions of lousy design. Here are a few, of many reasons, why. BRTS The bus rapid transit system being implemented in Vizag shows amazing examples of daft design. It is logical that when passengers get off the bus they need to move safely away to the pavement on either side of the road. A good example of irrational design is the BRTS bus stand in front of the Swarna Bharati indoor stadium on Rama Talkies Road. The bus stand is barely 4 feet wide and shrinks to 2 feet or so at the exit point. A partial bus load of passengers stepping off the bus will obviously be bottle-necked at this narrow point ...

This article appeared in The Times of India today. The original (and unedited) word document is also pasted below because its easier to read. Building a great Vizag Sohan Hatangadi Now that all the hullabaloo surrounding the separation and the elections are behind us let us get down to some really important business. First we must face the reality; Vizag will not be the capital of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. I hate that “residuary” word, sounds like something the doctor prescribes for poor bowel movement. Many Vizagites will be sorely disappointed. And some wanting to avoid capital punishment will be secretly relieved. No need to be capital to be a great city You do not have to be the administrative capital of the state or country to be recognized as a great city. Delhi may be capital but Mumbai has got more moolah muscle. Washington DC may be the capital of the USA but San Francisco and New York win the popularity contest hands down. Canberra is the ca...

The wise, discuss weighty regional issues Last month I attended a meeting organised by “Gravity 2.0”. No it was not a new computer game. It was an organisation meeting to deliberate weighty matters. The “Vizag Bay Regional Economic Summit 2012” was discussing how to “develop” the entire region stretching from Srikakulam to Vijayawada into a super city cluster crammed with industry. Speakers from industry and the business world trumpeted their achievements. The main speaker talked of how Vizag Port was serving industry and society. A COO of an automobile dealership told us how rapidly they were expanding.  Everyone waxed eloquent about their vision for Vizag. The dream was to build several ports and miles and miles of industries all along the coast and inland too.  Some wanted to put up more tourist attractions on our beaches. The key speaker also went on to say that farmers should give up farming as the remuneration was too low and they should work in industry where t...