Engine and four coaches of the Miraj-Hubli express derailed at Tavaragatti station on Hubli-Londa section on Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning.
No injuries were reported but due to this time table of trains was disrupted.
Following the derailment, Chennamma express from Dharawad and Kolhapur, Hubli-Bellary-Dharwad passenger and Londa-Hubli passenger trains have been cancelled.
In the wake of the incident, the Bangalore-Jodhpur express has been diverted via Gadag, Bijapur, Sholapur and Pune, Dadar-Yeshavantpur Chalukya express regulated at Belgaum railway station and Tirupati—Kholhaur Haripriya express at Hubli and Howrah-Amaravati express at Londa.

Year	Population
1820	7652
1852	13000
1866	16514
1868	24366
1872	26947
1881	32697

 The earliest record of Belgaum population is in 1820, when it had population of 7652people lodged in 1309 houses. One- third of these were Marathas, one-sixth Musalmdins mostly connected with religious establishments, one-sixth Lingayats, one-eighth Jains, one-ninth Brahmans chiefly
Deshasths and Karhades, and the rest artisans of various sorts.
The choice of Belgaum as the head-quarters of the Collectorate and as the chief military station in the Karnataka brought a large accession to the population, chiefly Marwadi traders, Madrasi Mhar
and Pendhari camp followers, and upper class Hindus in Government.
In 1852 the population of Belgaum including the village of Khasbag and probably Shahpur amounted to about 30,000 including between 13,000 to 14,000 who lived in the camp. In 1866 the town population numbered 16,514.
Increasing to 19,371 and to 24,366 in the next two years. In 1870 the opening of the Amboli pass and the direct communication with the port of Vengurla in Ratnagiri brought a further increase to the trade and population of the town.
The 1872 census showed a population of 26,947, of whom 19,384 were Hindus, 5517 Muslims, 1757 Christians, and 289 Others.
The 1881 census gave for the city a population of 23,115 and for the Cantonment of 9582, that is a total population of 32,697. Of these 22,939 were Hindus, 7136 Muslims, 2481 Christians, 53 Parsis and 88 Jews. This on 1725 square acres gives an average density of about nineteen to the square acre.
Belgaum does not appear to have been a large town either under the Houses, Musalmans (1350-1750) or under the Marathas (1750-181 8). In 1820 two years after its capture it had 1309 houses lodging about 7700 persons, and of these a good many must have been added in 1818 when about 300 houses in the fort were pulled down. In 1820 the houses which were thinly scattered are described as better than in most parts of India.
In 1872 Belgaum had 4388 houses, 827 of which were of the better. These lodged 26,947 persons or and 3561 of the poorer sort. Average of 6.14 persons to each house. Of late the town has spread towards the north-west and south-west and many houses have been built chiefly by husbandmen who hold land near the town. In 1881 the number of houses was increased to 7713. All the houses are tiled.

Source: Gazeetteer of Bombay Presidency (1884)

Various parts of the city have reported increased cases of people affected with Gastroenteritis.

Areas like Ganeshpur, Peeranwadi, Uchagon have been badly affected.
Yesterday about 85 people were admitted with Gastro from Ganeshpur.
People have been advised to drink only boiled and cooled water.
Gastroenteritis (also known as gastric flu, although unrelated to influenza) is inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, involving both the stomach and the small intestine and resulting in acute diarrhea. It can be transferred by contact with contaminated food and water. The inflammation is caused most often by an infection from certain viruses or less often by bacteria, their toxins, parasites, or an adverse reaction to something in the diet or medication.

Sunday June 20, 2010 starting from Kittur Rani Chennamma circle at 8 am
Belgaumnext.com - City of Pride, an initiative by proactive Belgaumites, will host a marathon event on Sunday June 20, 2010 starting from Kittur Rani Chennamma circle to promote and create awareness of the forthcoming conference on sustainable development and next generation infrastructure systems for Belgaum in July.
The event will be attended by dignitaries, government officials, celebrities, industrialists, students & businessman from Belgaum.
The “Run for Belgaum's Development”, will benefit in bringing awareness regarding the issues taken up to ensure systematic & sustainable development of Belgaum city.
“The marathon event will lead to creation of awareness regarding various people to people initiatives taken up by Belgaumnext. The event will also promote public and multi party participation process in development and infrastructure activities taken up by Government and local bodies. The main objective is to create awareness in people and to get them involved in the decision making process so that they become proactive in the community and they city will lead to systematic development said Mr. Rajeev Topannavar, Director, Belgaumnext. “With the help of local administration & citizens of Belgaum, we anticipate enthusiastic participation, in large numbers, for the marathon.”
About Belgaumnext
“Belgaum Next” is a open platform for all Belgaumites desiring to witness, Belgaum prosper and develop in a sustainable & systematic environment. It is an effort to bring all citizens of Belgaum under one common roof in order to achieve enthusiastic people to people participation in upgrading the status of Belgaum.

AllAboutBelgaum.com is now on BGM's official website as important district websites.
http://belgaum.nic.in/distsites.html
AAB is the only private website to be listed on the important district websites page.
This is a great achievement for a small blog like AAB.
Thanks readers for making it upto here.

INOX Chandan opens today (Thrusday) evening
Todays Shows: Rajneeti at 5.45 pm, 6pm & 8.45 pm
Huu (kanada movie) 5.30 & 9.15 pm
Prince of Persia at 8.45pm.
Inox Chandan has three screens and capacity of 897 persons. Online ticket booking has not yet been activated.

Belgaum showed the way of voluntary subscriptions of road repairs in 1848
“The example of Belgaum thus followed in several towns and villages of the district. “ says the Thornton's Gazetteer, 66.
 In 1848 the leading men of Belgaum formed a committee and Roads, in four months by voluntary subscriptions repaired all the roads, and lanes of the town, extending to a length of between nine and ten miles. In reward for their public spirit Government granted the, people of Belgaum a sum of £600 (Rs. 6000) to improve the town. Still much remained to be done in windeninh the old roads and in making new roads until the municipality was established in 1852.
In 1853-54, £59(Rs.590) and during the next four years £40 to £50 (Rs. 400-500) were spent. In 1864-65 £242 (Rs. 2420) were, spent, and from 1865 to 1880, £253 (Rs. 2530) have been yearly spent on roads. There are at present fifty-seven sections of roads known by the names of the streets through which they pass. Most of these sections have been metaled within the last eight or ten years and a few of crumbled trap or murum are being gradually metalled. Every day all the municipal roads are cleaned by sweepers.
The sweepings consisting of grass rubbish dry leaves and decayed bones are gathered in dust-bins in different parts of the town, removed in carts, and thrown into a pit to the south of the town. The sweepings were at first used to fill old quarry holes and the low lying spaces in and near the town. When rotten and decayed the sweep ings are sold as manure. The leading streets are lighted with kerosene lamps, of which severity-one are kept alight at a yearly cost of £165 (Es. 1554). During the dry weather nine carts water the roads at a yearly cost of £65 (Rs. 650). The town is surrounded by a hedge chiefly of karvi or milk bush with openings for the roads. These openings are called gates or veses, and some of them roads and are said to have formerly been provided with gateways and gates which were closed at night. The chief gates are! The Patil, the Bogar and the Gondhalivada in the west; the Kangrali & Kakti.
The Bogarves was the largest gate, as Oaten, the term is still applied to any unusually broad passage. The other gates have been opened as the town limits ex;tended. Near the Kotval chavdi in Sherkhanvada are traces of a gate which must have led to the fort. At each of the present gates is a police post a small pretty building and a municipal toll bar. Besides the gates several small openings lead out of the town, where toll men are stationed.

Source: Gazetter of Bombay Presidency 1884.
Most of the thins mentioned in 1884 still are true even currently. If the people come together again and work together we could make a difference again.
“Belgaum Next” is a similar platform being built for citizens on the same grounds.

The Mahadev Temple next to the School of Culture is commonly called as “Biscuit Mahadev”.
But why this strange name? Looking for the answer----- Read it then
There was a bakery beside the temple, then a very small place of Mr. Jambotkar.
He used to daily keep biscuits made in his bakery infront of the lord, and hence the name, “Biscuit Mahadev”.




The temple has recently been renovated.
Photos: Santosh Purohit

3 Dudes. 18 days. 16,000 kms. A Ford Endeavor. And Indian to explore.
 Three friends – Aadil Bandukwala (Belgaum), Sameer Siddique & Ratheesh Kumar and intend to travel to each and every state in India including that particular state’s capital city in a Car covering a distance of more than 16000 kilometers in less than 18 Days beginning June 16^th 2010 from Bangalore.
 They will attempt this in a Ford Endeavor and their journey will originate and terminate at Bangalore. They intend to do this purely out of passion for travel.
The trio are big time travel aficionados and recently came to know that someone did this same feat in 19 days and 23 hours which was festered as a record by Limca Book of Records. They intend to crack shack this feat and will be striving to break this record in less than 18 days.
28 States and 5 Union Territories including the National Capital Territory of Delhi is what we intend to touch. A minimum distance of 16,000 km will be covered between the starting and finishing point – Bangalore.
 
The Trio says: -

• Whose idea was it and why? -
  We have done lots of road trips in the past and almost covered the entire country by road. However, when we were planning our next road trip we chanced upon a record from the Limca Book of Records for the longest and fastest to drive across india. No sooner we saw that, it gave us a rush of adrenalin. Since Sameer and Ratheesh both are Indian Nomads, in the sense since driving and traveling is in their veins, they knew that until and unless they do not give this a shot they would not rest. Then they met Aadil who's equally fanatic about travel and wala! They decided to overhaul this purely from a record breaking maneuver to a trip that explores the geographies of India. To add to that we also intend to taste, indulge in and blog about tantalizing food from all over the country. Thirdly, we plan to use social media as a tool to share and discuss our experiences online with the world. Fourthly, Bottom line - record or no record, we're into this for the kick of it. :)

• Motto behind it -
  When we started discussing this with our friends and family, the fact that the three of us intend to drive 24x7, 18 days on the trot for over 16000 kms, get into the not so peaceful corners of the country, most of them said we're out of our skulls, that we'd be smitten by worms, that we've got to be smoking pot. That in itself was inspiration for us. Every one used a common word - impossible. However, we strongly believe those who do the impossible are often unaware that what they did was impossible. Our motto is 'The Journey is the Reward'.

• Social Message -
  Do what you believe in. These days, its difficult for anyone irrespective of whether the individual is in the corporate world or a self employed entrepreneur or a freelancer or an academician - taking over 20 days off just for a trip that your heart beats for - is quite a feat. We've always followed what our hearts have longed for and have always believed in our abilities. The sense we make out of this is we never know what turn our life will take tomorrow, so while we're at it, make the most of it! We're dreamers and adore the fact that we do so.

The route:
Bangalore (Karnataka) – Vellore – Chennai (Tamil Nadu) – Puducherry (Puducherry) – Madurai (Tamil Nadu) – Thiruvananthapuram – Kochi – Kozhikode (Kerala) – Mangalore – Karwar (Karnataka) – Panaji – Mapusa (Goa) – Belgaum (Karnataka) – Satara – Pune – Mumbai – Palghar (Maharashtra) – Silvasa (Dadra, Nagar Haveli) – Daman Daman (Daman & Diu) – Bharuch – Vadodara – Gandhinagar – Godhra (Gujarat) – Indore – Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) – Rajgarh – Kota – Jaipur – Bikaner – Ganganagar (Rajasthan) – Firozpur – Amritsar – Pathankote (Punjab) – Jammu – Udhampur – Srinagar – Kargil – Leh – Pang (Jammu & Kashmir) – Jispa – Manali – Bilaspur – Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) – Chandigarh (Punjab, Haryana & UT) – Nahan (Himachal Pradesh) – Dehradun (Uttarakhand) – Delhi (NCT) – Agra – Kanpur – Lucknow – Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) – Patna – Khagaria – Purnia – (Bihar) – Dalkola – Siliguri – Jalpaiguri – Cooch Behar (West Bengal) – Goalpara – Guwahati – Dispur (Assam) – Shillong (Meghalaya) – Karimganj (Assam) – Agartala (Tripura) – Silchar (Assam) – Aizawl (Mizoram) – Imphal (Manipur) – Kohima – Dimapur (Nagaland) – Jorhat – North Lakhimpur (Assam) – Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) – Tezpur – Nalbari – Kachugaon (Assam) – Alipurduar – Madarihat – Mal Bazar – (West Bengal) – Gangtok (Sikkim) – Darjeeling – Malda – Baharampur – Calcutta – Kharagpur (West Bengal) – Baharagora – Jamshedpur – Ranchi – Chaibasa (Jharkhand) – Kendujhargarh – Bhubaneshwar – Sambalpur (Orissa) – Raipur (Chhattisgarh) – Nagpur / Chandrapur (Maharashtra) – Nizamabad – Hyderabad – Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) – Anantapur – Bangalore (Karnataka).

While they are doing this monstrous drive, they do not intend to stop at cities and check into hotels. They would be driving 24 x 7. While 2 of them keep the car on the road, one of them will every now and then catch up with some sweet sleep.
Bottom line: 18 Days, 24 x 7 Driving, Over 16,000 kms, Tweeting, Blogging, Hogging and Discovering India.
And just when does this trailblazing extravaganza begin? 16th June 2010.

About the Trio:
Sameer Siddique

Sky Diver. Bungee Jumper. 21st Century Nomad. Globe Trotter. A few words that describe a box of adventure called Sameer. While most kids had aspirations to be doctors, engineers and scientists, Sameer very ripely expressed his desire to be a Truck Driver. Traveling is in Sameer’s blood. After having holidayed in UK, Germany, New Zealand, Azarbhaijan, Malaysia, Dubai, China and India, Sameer these days dreams of setting his footprint on the world map. As for work, Sameer is a Flight Attendant with a Leading International Airline Company.
Ratheesh Kumar
Born and brought up in God’s Own Country, Kerala, Ratheesh is as composed a man you will ever find. From Hotel Management Roles in one of India’s Largest Five Star Group’s to being a Swashbuckling Bar Tender at one of Bangalore’s hottest clubs, from freezing experiences in Leh to getting heat burns in Rajasthan, Ratheesh can never cease to surprise you. While not tripping, Ratheesh is employed with an International Airline.
Aadil Bandukwala
Aadil is the essence of overconfidence! Fast food and fast cars are his instant gratification. 27 years into life, Aadil is an entrepreneur running an executive search firm armed with a Doctorate Degree. He calls himself speculation, adventure and the spirit of pursuit. His wife though calls him an incorrigible nincompoop. While not head hunting, Aadil likes to spend time, googling around, exploring multi cultural cuisines, taking vacations now and then, riding his Royal Enfeild and killing time on his Mac.
http://tantalizingindia.com/
 One can follow their site with their Twiter updates as to where they are at that moment.
All the best to the Trio for the record breaking attempt.

by Special correspondent Satish Kumar
Belgaum is being a backbone to auto ancillary units of Central and south India, but little has the government done so far on its development in this field known for body building of trucks and buses, earlier government though established Auto nagar, but lack of integrated facility and proper infrastructure the project failed miserably.
TELCO was smartly moved by Mr Sr Bommi regime to Dharwad, none of our Belgaum politicians could raise up on this issue ever and I believe they will keep falling too low till Belgaum looses on most of the front, the recent issues was of hero Honda plant which I wrote to CM and asked after TELCO; is Belgaum liable to lose more such industries, and even wrote to Pavan Minjal CMD Hero Motors.
The GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA Commerce & Industries Dept. in its email has replied that and I quote ” Commerce & Industries Dept. has come out with a New Industrial Policy 2009-14 with an emphasis on promotion of industries in backward areas of Karnataka. Normally, Department of Industries & Commerce suggests suitable locations to the investor for the venture. However, the selection of final location is the prerogative of the investor.
Belgaum, Dharwad and Haveri were the suggested locations to Hero Honda. However, Hero Honda has not yet finalized the location.”
What is that the politicians of Karnataka in rest of the state have such mealy attitude towards "on" Belgaum and what is the point in beating drums by Mr Nirani on Hero Honda plant at Hubli.
I believe be it Hon CM or Mr Nirani let Hero Honda decide on shown place of interest, well no talks have ever taken place on Mahindra and Mahindra plant in Belgaum, I believe we Belguimtes need have to live with this fake calls and false promises.
Let there be fair competition and I bet "on" Belgaum wouldn’t then ever fall out.
Read the earlier post on same topic.

Karnataka makes a pitch for Hero Honda plant at Hubli Dharwad Is Belgaum in Maharashtra

Belgaum has been transformed into a city of banners, hoarding and posters of BJP leaders. One can see only BJP hoardings and posters of BJP stalwarts all over the city.

All this is done for the Executive Committee of the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has no specific topics on the agenda for the two-day programme starting on June 7.

As many as 260 members of the committee, including Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP State unit president K.S. Eshwarappa and national general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, will attend the meeting.
The meeting is scheduled to be held at Foundry cluster Udayambag, and commuters from Circuit house to Udyambag can face some disturbances in traffic and also some diversions.

SP Sonia Narang raided Hindalga central jail on Thursday night and seized three cellphones from the barrack of criminal Rashid Malabari, an aide of underworld don Chhota Shakeel.

Investigations have revealed that call made were if international nature (ISD) from the jail. The SIM cards have been seized and call details are being sought from the mobile operators.  

Bogarve galli to the west of Kodolkar vada, reaching to the western border of the town leading to the camp, takes its name either from the houses or the caste of Bogars or coppersmiths who used to live in it. Many new houses have lately been built, and the place has a few Brahmans and Kunbi houses and is the head- quarters of Belgaum prostitutes.
Taken from the GAZETTEER OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY written in 1884.

We guess hence the name given to the circle currently known as Ch.Sambhaji Chowk as Bogarves.
Many things have changed since this was written. But a part of history.