Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) offers free WIFI internet connection for passengers . As you login in, you will be asked to enter the password. In order to access the WIFI connection password send an SMS to 56677 with the content “WIFI BIAL” and you will get the password by return SMS.Each login session is limited for one hour.

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New Bangalore international airport now named as Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) finally opened on May 24. Now all the bangalore flights will operate from this new airport in Devanahalli. Even though Bangalore International Airport is world class with all the facilities, reaching the new airport is a major hassle. BIA has arranged three types of transport facilities to reach and from the airport.

Airport shuttle service: BMTC will be operating VOLVO and non AC buses to Airport from different parts of the city.
The main routes are
JPNagar to BIA
Koramangala to BIA
Electronic city to BIA
JeevanBhima Nagar to BIA
HAL Airport to BIA
Whitefield to BIA
Mysore Road Satellite Terminus to BIA

These buses operate in 30 minutes frequency and charges are here. Check this map to know the route map and pick up points to airport.

BMTC Contact Details
BMTC Control Room: Telephone No: 2295 2522 / 2295 2422
BMTC, Kempegowda Bus Stand: Telephone No: 2295 2311 / 2295 2314
BMTC, Shivajinagar Bus Stand: Telephone No: 2295 2321 / 2295 2324

Another option is  to use Airport Taxi: Meru and Easy Cabs are the two authorised taxi operators. They will charge Rs.15 per km and waiting charge Rs.60 per hour. 

Airport Taxi Service Contact Numbers: Easy Cab- 4343 4343, Meru- 4422 4422

Third option is to use  premium chauffeured cars, or self-driven cars or Limousine service offered by Hertz and Akbar Travels to reach Bengaluru Airport.  They will charge approximately of Rs.1200 for 25Kms. Check the counters for the rates.

Contact Numbers: Hertz- 9972502292, Akbar Travels- 1 800 22 6000

If you have used any of these services, please give your comments.

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Indian Railway is offering 50% concession on the train fare from May 1,2008 for senior women above age 60. If you book train tickets online, select the option of senior citizen.The passenger should carry age-proof documents while travelling.

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Now with Paymate you can do online purchases, pay shopping bills or pay your monthly utility bills without carrying cash or credit card. You can make payments with your mobile phone. Paymate gives the facility to use any mobile phone (GSM or CDMA) and make the payment by sending SMS.

This is how it works.

First you register with Paymate (free) by linking your mobile phone with your existing bank account, credit card or debit card. After this, you will receive a four digit pin. When you want to make a payment, chose Paymate option. Then you will receive the payment amount as SMS. You agree to pay using your four digit pin number by sending an SMS. When the transaction is over and the amount will be charged to your bank account or credit card.

If you have account with any of these banks HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, South Indian Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, then you can make payments through Paymate. You can link multiple credit cards to your mobile phone and choose anyone for the payment.

Paymate doesn’t charge any extra fees for transactions but every SMS will cost Rs 2.00.

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Voters id is a valuable Identity card. Primarily, voters id is essential for voting during elections. Voter id card can also be used for Address proof, Age proof and as Photo card for all government programs.  

As election is apporaching in Karnataka, Election commission is speeding up the issue of voters id card in Bangalore. EC has come up with an new idea to avoid long queue to get photographed for voter id card. If you want to get a voter id, fill up the form and attach a passport size photograph and in 72 hours you will get the new voter id card. But the applicant has to go in person to get the Election Photo Id card.

These are the guidelines provided by the website-www.bangalorevoterid.org for applying for the voters id card. Download the online voter id card application form from this site.

1.Form-001 with Photograph will be collected by Revenue official at the Photography Centers Designated for the day

2. Voter Downloading Form-001, Kindly ensure your name exists in the Present Electrol Roll Published on 28/03/2008 after Delimitation of Assembly Constituencies

3. Know your Newpart No and Assembly Constituency ,Make the relevant Entry of Serial No ,Part No and Assembly Constituency No while filling Form-001.

If you want to know your Assembly constituency and Newpart No check here.

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GoAir Airlines has announced special summer offer “Kids fly free” . In GoAir flights,you can take two kids below 12 years free with you. To avail this offer you should book the air tickets between 14-20 April 2008 and you can travel between April 14- July 30 2008. One thing to note even though you get the base fare free, you have to pay taxes and surcharges per ticket. You can book the ticket at Go Air website or contact Go Air Airlines travel agents or call centres.
These are the terms and conditions for this offer.

• The offer is named “Kids fly free ”
• This offer is exclusively available only for kids who are below 12 years of age and are traveling with adults
• Maximum 2 kids per travelling adult can travel free, booked on the same PNR ticket.
• Children more than 12 years should be booked as adults and pay full requisite fare for travel
• Kindly carry valid proof of age for the kids travelling under this offer.
• Failure to present a valid proof of age at the time of checkin can render the travelling passenger to be treated as an adult. Consequently the passenger shall be liable to pay the difference of paid fare and the applicable fare prevalent at that time before undertaking the journey.
• The offer is offered only on the base fare/air fare component and the passenger shall have to pay for the taxes & surcharges as applicable on the ticket
• For passengers choosing to book under“GoFlexi”, the Kids booked shall continue to be treated under ‘GoSave” and respective rules apply.
• Offer is open for bookings made from 14th April 2008 till 20th April 2008 for travel during the period from 14th April 2008 to 30th July 2008.
• Tickets can be booked on GoAir website (www.GoAir.in), through Travel Agents, Call Centre, and Airport Ticketing counters
• Offer is valid only on select segments for limited tickets & limited period. Offer not applicable on certain segments like Mumbai-Srinagar-Mumbai & Mumbai-Jammu-Mumbai flight sectors
• GoAir reserves the right to add, modify, change, cancel or materially alter the offer without any prior notice
• GoAir follows a “Dynamic Pricing” module and the displayed fares may change at the time of booking of the tickets.
• Tickets booked with valid email id only will be eligible
• The tickets booked under this offer is non transferable
• All cancellation and rescheduling rules shall apply as per GoAir standard cancellation policy.
• This offer cannot be combined with any other offer/package / scheme.
• All other standard terms and conditions as displayed in terms and conditions/citizen charter on www.GoAir.in shall apply.
• GoAir reserves the right to modify the aforesaid terms and conditions.
• Group bookings not allowed under this offer.
• GoAir reserves the right to cancel/modify/change/alter any segment of ticket/s either partly or fully, at its sole discretion without assigning any reason, whatsoever, at any point prior to completion of the passenger’s journey

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Twice, I was rejected US visa. This year, I again applied and got 10 years multiple entry USA visitors visa. Here are some tips to help you to apply for US Visa.

The main website for US visa application in India is VFS. VFS has visa application centres in New Delhi, Jalandhar,Chandigarh,Chennai, Mumbai,Bangalore, Kochi, Kolkata,Hyderabad,Pune and Ahmedabad. In these centres you can apply and fix USA visa interview.

These are the suggestions, if you are applying US visa online.

1) First you can check the probable dates available for US visa interview in connection with your trip. In this page go the bottom to check the availability. Follow the steps in this page.

2) Pay the US Visa Fees and VFS service charges at designated HDFC branches.

3) You can book the appointment date after two days of paying your fees. You need to have your passport, all travel information and HDFC fee receipt with barcode number to fix the appointment.

4) Before fixing US visa interview date you need to fillup the US visa application forms. So be prepared with all travel details. This site provides details of all the documents needed.

5) The initial screens are little confusing for fixing the US visa appointment. Go to this page and click the link in step two “apply for non immigrant visa”. It will take you another screen which has the fee details, in the bottom Click on the “continue” button. Next screen comes with the question “Do you have a BEP user ID?” click “No”. After this page you will have three links and click on “Create a new application” and then you need to fill the US Visa application forms DS156 and DS157 online.

4) After filling the application,save it and choose the date for your interview. Take a printout of your application forms, Interview appointment letter and instructions. You have to submit the printouts of the application form signed by you at the time of interview. You have to take the printout of DS156 in a single sheet front and back and DS157 in another sheet. Take all the documents, photograph, and passport for the interview.

Here are some tips as you go for the interview

1) You cannot take any electronic items such as MP3 player or mobile phone etc. You can take only the papers in a file and your purse or a small bag. Security will check all the things. When I went there, I saw security guys taking out torch and chewing gums. There is no place in the embassy to keep your valuable things.

2) You can use VFS Stars and Stripes lounge service to keep your things. I used the VFS lounge service in Chennai. It was good, you have to pay Rs.200 per person. You can deposit your valuables there and freshen up or change your dress. You can wait in their AC lounge till the time of your interview. They will take you to the embassy, 10 minutes before your interview and bring you back after the interview. With this facilities you get a Cafe Coffee and a sandwich. Another advantage is that they will check your application forms and keeps the documents in order. If your photo is not in correct specifications, there is facility to get a new one there itself.

2) Reach 10 minutes before your interview time, at the gate show your passport and interview appointment letter, after security check you go inside the hall. First you have to go to counter and they verify your application and take fingerprints of both of your hands. After that they you give the application form and passport in a pouch and send you to the queue for your interview.

3) As you go to meet Visa Officer, greet him/her. Then they may verify again one of your finger print. Follow their directions. The first thing they need to know is the purpose of your travel. Be very clear on this and prepare yourself to convincingly answer the question. In this site, you can read the experiences of visa applicants and the questions Visa Officers normally ask. Keep your other documents like invitation letter etc in order to take it fast. The guy before me was rejected the visa, as he couldn’t find the document. Time is precious for the officer. If you are rejected, the officer may immediately return back the passport or sometimes gives you pink slip and ask you to answer the questions by email. Otherwise it means you got the visa and the visa stamped passport will be delivered through courier.

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Pincode number is very important for speedy delivery of postal articles. Many times it is difficult to remember all the Indian pincodes. Now you can find pincode of any place through Indiapost. There you can search by typing the place to find the pincode number or if you know the pincode number you can find the place. If you want to  know how pincode is coded by regions, then read this article.

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Election Commission of India published the final list of  voters list in Karnataka. The new voters list of delimited assembly constituencies is also ready till March 29. If you don’t know your constituency, check the map and search for your name in the list.

If you are staying in BBMP area or Bangalore Urban District then you can do your name search here.

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According to some estimates there are more than a crore savings bank account which are not operating in the last 10 years. Now most of the people have more than two or three bank accounts, but they uses only one or two. Here are some of the important things you should know when you don’t operate your savings bank account.

1. If you don’t use your bank account continuously for more than 24 months, according to Reserve Bank rules your account becomes dormant. When your account becomes dormant you cannot withdraw your money through phone banking, internet banking or through ATM.

2. At the same time, different banks handles the dormant accounts in different ways. HSBC and HDFC bank makes your bank account first as inactive account, if you don’t use it for a year and it becomes a dormant account if you don’t do any transactions upto two years. ICCI bank makes your saving bank account inactive if it’s not used for 15 months. Some banks charges extra fees to make your inactive or dormant accounts operative. In order to make your inactive account operative you have go to the bank directly and do some transaction,while for the dormant account, you have to give an application form and should give new proof of identity.

3. If your savings bank account doesn’t have the required minimum balance consecutively for three months, then the banks can close your account without informing you.

4. If your cheques bounces without sufficient money in your account in a row for more than three times, banks can close your account.

Source: Smart Money column by C S Ranjith in Malayala Manorama, March 24.

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