Top brass give hope of better days at City’s bus terminals

Top brass give hope of better days at City’s bus terminals

TRAVEL-LOG

Deccan Herald, under its ‘Travel-log’ series, had highlighted the state of some major bus stands and the problems faced by the travelling public. Today, we are presenting the interviews of two top officials of KSRTC and BMTC. The officers are hopeful that the bus stations would have better amenities in the days to come. They also say that if people have civic sense, then the bus stations would be better places.

Deccan Herald

Bangalore: Confronted with the twin problems of congestion and unclean surroundings in most bus-stations, M R Sreenivasa Murthy, Managing Director, KSRTC, says the Corporation has short-term and long-term plans for improvement. Excerpts from an interview:

DH: Do you have a solution to the suffocating congestion at the KSRTC Majestic bus-station?
SM: We have put together several plans, as congestion and enormous traffic are a major problem. In the short-run, we have decided not to renew temporary licences of shops inside the station, which expire shortly.

The licences given to several petty shop-keepers will terminate in mid-December, and we plan to identify all such shops and their licences will be discontinued.
This will give more space for people to move around, particularly near the Kolar platform and the shops abutting Dhanvantri road. We will put up seats and shelters for this space to be used as waiting space.

We have also asked civil engineers to see how to extend platforms in existing space.

That will not solve the problem permanently...
We are building a new terminus at Mysore Road, which will be ready in three-five months. Some of bus services — those bound south, say, to Mysore and Kerala – will be shifted to this bus station. We will also shift one of the three depots at Majestic to Mysore Road, so that gives more space in Majestic itself.
In the long-term, we are looking at setting up an ‘integrated transit centre’ at Majestic. This is a station for railways, BMTC and KSRTC buses, besides the proposed stop for the Metro Rail. There are too many people who want to shift from one mode of transport to another all the time. An inter-nodal committee, comprising officials from all these, are working out how to establish one integrated transit centre. That is, if a passenger comes by bus and wants to board a train, there will be rest-rooms and waiting spaces for all here. He wouldn’t have to go out of the compound to change his mode of transport.

What about improving toilet facilities?
We are buiding a new toilet block at the western end of the bus terminus. Once that is commissioned by December-end, we will renovate the existing toilets in the eastern end.

Mr Hemaraju, General Manager (Technical), BMTC admits city bus stations are bursting at the seams, but says the Corporation is willing to spend any amount on upgrading its own property. But problems persist in places like KR Market bus station, which is owned by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. Excerpts from an interview.:

DH: With no bus shelters, KR Market has to take the cake for bad infrastructure...
HR: BMTC can invest any amount to upgrade infrastructure in all bus stations that it owns. At KR Market, remodelling or increasing the area is a problem because of its ownership — it is owned by BMP and we only use it. In fact, there are encroachments in KR Market and we have written to BMP Commissioner several times, asking him to remove these. As it is, there are major space constraints. But the hutments on the bus station property remain there. In contrast, we’ve spend Rs 6 crore in upgrading bus stations in Majestic, Jeevanbhimanagar, Nandini Layout, Chandra Layout and other places.

At other bus stations you seem to have too much space, going by the unused subways in Shivajinagar or ill-used flyover in Majestic!
All other bus stations are saturated too, if you go by the traffic. For instance, no bus ever ‘stops’ at Majestic, they go to the platform, pick up passengers and move on. We cannot add any more trips here. Even in Shivajinagar, buses are asked to stop ahead of the platform so passengers can get off, then it moves to the platform to pick up more passengers and moves on. We are aware of the fact that pedestrian subways and flyovers are not optimally used. In fact, there is severe lack of civic sense among people. If our officials ask passengers to use the flyover in Majestic so that there is no danger of them coming under bus wheels, they usually retort saying, “If I die, it’s my life, why are you worried?” At Shivajinagar, sub-ways are only used by peddlars and we are worried passengers continue to move around between platforms, instead of using subways.

It hampers our service, makes our buses slower. Users must use the facilities installed, not violate other norms. But unfortunately, this is not only a problem with our bus stations but all public buildings — even court complexes, where people create a nuisance outside compound walls, instead of using toilets.

Why don’t you just levy penalties on these ‘nuisance-creators’?
If one guard chases away two peddlars or eve-teasers, there are two others coming up right behind. We have increased security but there is too much traffic, what with 15 buses coming in every minute. We have to decentralise traffic, have stops along inner ring road or nearby roads, such that buses can by-pass Majestic. Majestic is usually a transit point, where people get off to take another bus. We are introducing more long-route buses to avoid this — like Vijaynagar to Jayanagar.