Shantinagar bus stand work nears completion

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Shantinagar bus stand work nears completion
The bus station has all modern facilities.
Deccan Herald

This bus station is being seen as the mother of all solutions to the grievances of bus commuters in Bangalore.

Begun nearly two years ago, the tinted glass three-storeyed structure that reflects sunlight off its sheen and the steel railings that make bus travel seem an orderly process can tell you one thing about Shantinagar Bus Station - IT city has arrived.
The bold gold lettering ‘BMTC’ can throw you off-guard, giving the image of a multi-national company. But observe how the road in front of it is neatly asphalted, in total contrast to the pot-hole-ridden KH Road that leads up to it, and you are brought back to the stark reality of Government work.

Built at a cost of Rs 20 crore, the Shantinagar Bus Station is nearing completion and will probably be thrown open in a month or two. “It will probably become operational by the new year. It has a capacity for about 2,000 departures and arrivals and all the modern facilities,” said BMTC General Manager (Technical) Hemaraju.

The station boasts of a three-storeyed office building, car-parking space for 400 vehicles and granite flooring. It will have a toilet block in a separate annexe and a separate ‘water hut’ for clean drinking water, besides water-coolers points spread around the platforms.

Tiled walls of the building exteriors speak of a wisdom that has come with experience of commuters spitting pan and using walls as common space for anything from urinals to sticking posters -- at least, tiles can be washed off easily!
Sub-ways take you from one platform to another, trying to spread the message that you cannot walk around on ground. But is this the same waste of investment that Shivajinagar sub-way testifies to? Nobody uses sub-ways, unless there is no other way!

As an alternative
“This bus station is expected to ease out a large volume of traffic, particularly from the City Market bus station. We’ll terminate most south-bound buses at Shantinagar, once it’s operational, instead of allowing them on till K R Market. Buses to and from places like Anekal, Hosur, Electronic City and Sarjapur will stop here - passengers can change buses to other places here, or take other forms of transport. In fact, we are thinking of a shuttle-service between Shantinagar to City Market, that can cater to the passengers who have to go to K R Market, though there will be a considerable number of buses to the Market too,” said Mr Hemaraju.
The logic behind offering a large car-parking space is with the hope that people in surrounding residential areas can drive into Shantinagar, park, and take a bus to their place of work -- say Electronic City or Bannerghatta Road.

Will people shift to the idea of moving away from K R Market? What about farmers coming in from Bangalore Rural district?

“Over time, they will accept this. Perhaps it will take a year, but they will get used to the idea. After all, Lalbagh is nearby, they can sell their produce to the Horticultural Producers’ Cooperative Marketing Society (HOPCOMS).

They can always take another bus to K R Market, which is just one km away,” explains Mr Hemaraju.

So will Shantinagar bring more ‘Shanti’ to the woes of K R Market commuters? Only time will tell. So long, 2005.