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The Story of my Website and how you can start your own
Posted by BenzuJK in Civil Projects on February 14, 2015
I began writing on this blog way back in 2008. It was a slow journey. I had to learn everything on my own. There are a lot of resources on the internet if you wish to learn. I had very little experience with the entire process of launching a website.
In 2007, I joined university to study Architecture. At the same time, I decided to start a website. I liked to write, and blogging was an excellent platform for it. I had created static sites during the days of GeoCities. But things had changed in 2007. Static sites were passe. Internet had moved to Web 2.0 technologies which used PHP and AJAX instead of plain old HTML. There were a few publishing platforms available in those days. WordPress, Blogger, Joomla, Drupal, TypePad and a few others.
The most popular were WordPress by Automattic, and Blogger by Google. I created free blogs on both these platforms to check out their capabilities. WordPress was superior in some ways, Blogger in others. But overall, WordPress had the edge because of its enormous ecosystem of plugins and themes.
The best way to leverage this powerful platform was to create a self-hosted blog, where you were free to use the WordPress platform on your own server. This way, you could have total control over customization of your blog. Installing a WordPress site is a simple process, using automated scripts provided by almost all hosting companies. Installing it manually is also simple, but you have to manually create a database and link it to your site during installation. But things are a lot easier these days.
Project Management Planning and Execution
Posted by BenzuJK in Project Management on October 1, 2014
Project Management is a vast and growing field of science which deals with the question of how to manage your projects more effectively.
Project management is defined as the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals in scientific or daily problems. Project management is a process of solving problems, or taking advantage of new business opportunities.
What is a Project?
A project is an activity with a beginning, a specific goal to accomplish, a budget of time & resources, and an end. The goal can be constructing a new apartment building, expanding your business into new product categories, or expanding your distribution network. All projects have constraints of man power, time and money.
The project life cycle
A Project Manager has to be good at getting things done. She should have the technical and interpersonal skills required to complete the project. Her job includes identifying the work that needs to be done, building a schedule, launching the project and monitoring performance to make sure it stays on time and within budget. Strong leadership skills are a necessary trait in a successful project manager.
Planning Committee Meeting
Posted by BenzuJK in Green Building, Urban Design on August 25, 2014
Abstract
This report outlines the process in which a planning application was analysed at the planning committee meeting. It discusses the role of different members present in the meeting in the planning application process. Different stages of planning application process have been studied, which include pre-application advice, application submission, role of validation team, role of development control officer and planning committee involvement. Different types of applications have been mentioned. The planning application selected for analysis has been described. The planning officer’s report contents have been briefly summarised. The stages in the process of planning application assessment have been explained in detail. Lastly, the planning application process has been critically analysed.
Background study of Planning Application Process
Planning takes places within the context of a system which is defined by Legislation, Regulations and Orders, Case Law, National policy and advice (NPPF), local plans (Neighbourhood plans), appeals and enforcement.
Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) evaluate planning applications. This will be either District/Borough/City/Unitary/County/London/Borough/Metropolitan/National Park.
The applicant has an option to get free “Pre-application advice”. The applicant can discuss the documents with the council in presence of planning officers and get advice on the list of required documents for application approval. This is an optional service and depends on the applicant’s desire to use it. Instead, the applicant can directly submit the application to Local authority.
The application is then passed on to the Validation team who is responsible for checking all the documents against the local list (where all the policies relating to the application are considered) in order to validate if relevant. The application is then forwarded to the Development manager or Development control Officer (DC).
DC stage has two options.
- It is delegated by the officer. In this case, if the planning application is straightforward, the consent is given by the DC officer alone.
- Sometimes, there is a need for the planning committee to intervene and decide if the application is to be approved or refused. The DC officer sends his comments to the committee regarding his thoughts and analysis of the application.
Role of Planning Committee
Major and contentious applications are dealt with by Planning Committees. They also inspect the sites before coming to a conclusion. The Planning Committee includes Councillors from all political parties and areas of the City. Officers of the Council also attend to answer questions about the reports.
Urban Redesign Proposals
Posted by BenzuJK in Civil Projects, Urban Design on May 14, 2014
Urban redesign proposals
Traffic Issue
Around 60% of the traffic uses the main road of the shopping street as a bypass route. The road connects places such as LB nagar, Saroor nagar, Vanasthalipuram, Charminar, Dilsukhnagar etc. There is lot of traffic of the buses which is creating lot of chaos and congestion on the main street.
Urban redesign proposals
Suggested Proposal to solve Traffic Problem:
Proposal for a one-way flyover (40’ wide)
As an attempt to solve the problem of the traffic movement, we are suggesting the proposal of a Flyover for one-way traffic which will take around 80% of the bus traffic.
Traffic and Parking problems identified | Urban Design
Posted by BenzuJK in Urban Design on May 8, 2014
Traffic issues at Abids | Urban Design
Permanent traffic
Permanent traffic of the stretch considered (SBH-GPO) is the traffic of the shop owners and the employees. This is like a fixed percentage of traffic.
Permanent traffic
Flowing Traffic – Major Bus Traffic
Apart from this stretch being a major shopping Street in Abids, it also serves as a bypass route for going to Vanasthalipuram, Saroornagar, LBnagar, Dilsukhnagar and Charminar areas.
The movement of buses on this route is intense and causes lot of chaos which is not even relevant to Abids. There is a heavy percentage of Flowing Traffic on this stretch.
Flowing traffic
Staggered Traffic
Staggered traffic is usually found on the junctions. There are two major junctions on this stretch. The roads connecting the main street are two way roads. They can also be termed as “feeder roads”.
Staggered traffic
Floating traffic
50% of the traffic here on this main shopping street is the floating traffic. People park their vehicles wherever they find it easier and closer to get access to get their stuff and leave. The most chaos and cause of inconvenience is caused by floating traffic because they do not have an organized parking pattern.
Floating Traffic
Parking problems identified
On Street Parking
Main Shopping Street
The Parking of the vehicles especially two wheelers is done on the pavements or on the streets. This has led to the wrong practice of parking by the people. People go for On-street Parking because of the lack of Parking space.
Building and Cellar Parking
There is a very little percentage of Parking facility provided by the respective shop owners for their customers.
On street parking
For example, Big Bazaar
Big Bazaar has a provision for cellar Parking and Parking in the setbacks. Cellar Parking is very unsuccessful in Big Bazaar. People have an issue with easy access to the Parking area and hence they rather prefer parking it on the streets.
Big Bazaar
Permanent Parking
The shop owners and the employees of the respective shop owners park their vehicles as close to their shops or showrooms as possible. This Parking percentage does not vary with increasing traffic or parking.
Permanent Parking