Whitefield, Bangalore

Template:Infobox Indian jurisdiction Whitefield (Kannada: ವೈಟ್ ಫೀಲ್ಡ್) is a suburb of Bangalore in the state of Karnataka, India. Established in the late 1800s as a settlement for the Eurasians of Bangalore, Whitefield remained a quaint little settlement till the 2000s when the IT boom of Bangalore reshaped it as a major suburb. It is also renowned for Sathya Sai Baba's ashram called Brindavan and as a haven for a number of multinational information technology companies.

History

On the 27th April, 1882, His Highness, Chamaraja Wodeyar, the Maharaja of Mysore, granted 3,900 acres (16 km²) of land to the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association, Mysore and Coorg (E&AI) for the establishment of agricultural Settlements at Whitefield (then Mysore state). The Association was then about 170 strong with a Committee of 30 Members. They were part of the formation of the only settlement in India that European and Eurasians could call their own. Mr. David Emmanuel Starkenburgh White, the then President of the E & AI Association, South India Ltd., also took a lively interest in it and helped in its advancement which at the beginning was very uphill work.

In the first decade of the 1900's there were about 45 houses of which 18 were on the village Site and the remainder were on farms scattered throughout the Settlement and contained about 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) of land fit for cultivation. The number of residents in 1907 was 130. H.E. Lord Connemara, the then Governor of Madras (1890) and General Sir Harry Prendergast, a British Resident in Mysore, visited the settlement and lent support to the development of Whitefield, subsequently there were regular visits to Whitefield by the Bangalore District Officials and high dignitaries from the Madras Presidency.

The settlement was 3 km south of the Bangalore-Madras (Now Chennai) line and a station was built. It led to the influx of residents and their families who worked at KGF (Kolar Gold Fields) which is about 50 km (by train) to the east. It became convenient for those working at KGF to hop on to a train (running 3 to 4 times a day) and return to their families. There were frequent trains running to Bangalore which is 20 km west (by train). Reaching the settlement from the railway station was possible only by writing a letter to Mrs. Hamilton (wife of a Mr. James Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton was the keeper of the Waverly Inn) who would arrange for a bullock cart trip for 8 annas.

Winston Churchill, two time Prime Minister of the UK, is said to have paid frequent visits to the Waverly Inn while In India. . Legend has it that Winston Churchill courted the daughter of the inn keepers, Rose Hamilton.

Until the late 1980s, Whitefield was a small village. It has since become a major hub for the Indian technology industry. The Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) at Whitefield of one of the country's first information technology parks - International Tech Park, Bangalore (ITPB) which houses offices of many IT and ITES companies. One of the oldest establishment is Tata Elxsi which came to Whitefield around the late 80s. The EPIP zone has offices of other IT and R&D giants like TCS, Accenture, UTL, Symbian, General Electric, SOA IT Solutions, Wipro, GE Medical Systems, iGate Global Solutions, Sapient, Manhattan Associates, SAP Labs, Dell Services (former Perot Systems), Dell, IBM, Intel, Mindtree Ltd, Sabre Holdings, CapeGemini, ABB and Oracle. An Intel Xeon processor code named Whitefield was being developed (but was scrapped later) in Intel's ITPB campus .

Upcoming residential and commercial constructions in Whitefield

Whitefield is officially part of Bangalore city with it being included into BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike).

Layout

The heart of Whitefield is formed by a large circle 1,500 feet (460 m) in diameter called the 'Inner Circle'. Enclosed by the circle are a playground (Eastern half) and a park (Western half). Another road concentrically outside the Inner circle is the 'Outer Circle'. The Whitefield Main road lies to the East forming a tangent to the Outer Circle.

Road Layout of Whitefield

The 2 circles along with the Borewell Road (perpendicular to the main road, to the south of Outer Circle) forms the original settlement of Whitefield.

Villages around Whitefield

1. Pattandur agrahara
2. Nellurhalli
3. Varthur
4. Immadihalli
5. Hagadur
6. Harohalli
7. Kadugodi (Location of the Sai Baba ashram and the Whitefield railway Station)
8. Belathur
9. Segehalli
10. Kannamangala
11. Ramagondanahalli
12. Nagondanahalli
13. Siddapura
14. Channasandra
15. Samethanahalli
16. Bodhanahosahally
17. Thathanur
18. Seetharampalya
19. Belathur
20. Segehalli
21. Sadaramangala
22. Hoodi
23. Vijayanagar
24. Gandhipuram

Infrastructure

Whitefield has started seeing a boom in residential construction since the latter half of 1990s and especially during 2002 onwards. It is now one of the most sought after localities in the city.

Prominent Residents

Whitefield has started seeing a boom in prominent personalities moving in especially with the rise in amenities being offered. It is now one of the most sought after localities in the city and has the largest concentration of Villas in the country.

Some of the prominnet residents include

1. Dr Isaac Mathai
2. Sulaiman Jamal
3. Rakesh Sharma
4. Grenville Peck

Gallery

• 
  Sigma Technology Park
• 
  Sigma Technology Park
• 
  Brigade Harmony
• 
  Forum Value Mall
• 
  Forum Value Mall
• 
  Forum Value Mall
• 
  Inner Circle Park
• 
  A view of EPIP, Whitefield

External links

• http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2960/whitefld.htm&date=2009-10-26+21:50:24
• http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/152-heritage-past-beckons-at-whitefield-heritage-locality
• http://www.bangalorewalla.com/ronnie.johnson/whitef1.htm
• http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02666030.2011.556013