Six-lane Road to Srirangapatna: There are plans to widen the first 18 km on the Mysore-Bangalore road, upto Srirangapatna, into a six-lane highway, according to public works minister H D Revanna (May 30, 2005). The four-lane road, now being laid and scheduled for completion by June-end, has been delayed. The hold-up is because of unresolved land acquisition cases on the Mysore-Maddur stretch.
Speed-breaker menace: There are 49 speed-breakers on the Bangalore-Mysore road. They include the unauthorised ones put up by residents of villages and towns, notably Mandya, according to a KSRTC road survey findings, as reported in TOI.
Boom town: There is growing interest among Bangalore-located IT and other companies in expanding their operations to Mysore. IBM, Citibank and Metlife are believed to have firmed up plans (TOI- June6, 2005). Wipro has bought 100 acres. Infosys and TVS Motors are likely to go in for additional space. Foodworld, Nilgiris, Cafe Coffee Day are in expansion mode.
Jayalakshmi Vilas mansion on Manasagangotri campus has 125 rooms, with 300 windows and 287 doors. The place is to house the university museum, due for opening to public from this Dasara. The museum will showcase 17,000 artefacts pertining to folklore, arts ,archaeology and geology.
Architect of Mysore: It was during the reign of Sri Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar (born -June 4, 1884; came to power at the age of 18) that the Mysore University was established; over 800 schools were opened. The first hydro-power station in India was set up; Krishnaraja Sagar dam was contructed. The maharaja encouraged establishment of the Mysore oil and soap factory, Bhadravathi steel unit, the silk, the lac and paint factories, the Mandya sugar unit and the Coffee research centre. (Sourced from TOI write up, June 5, 2005)
Internet Users: It is estimated Mysore has 10,000 Internet connections (as on June 9, 2005) Of these BSNL accounts for 4000 connections. The rest is shared by Touchtel and Sify broadband service.
Musicologist King: The last Mysore king Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar (July 18, 1919 - Sept.23, 1974) was a schoalr in Carnatic music, in which he had 94 compositions to his credit. He courted the company of stalwarts such as Mysore Vasudevacharya and Tiger Varadachariar. He was student of western classical and an honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London - 'The Hindu', July 18, 2005.
