Centre may unveil urban transport policy soon

Centre may unveil urban transport policy soon

The Hindu

Ghulam Nabi Azad inaugurates state-of-the-art satellite bus terminal on Mysore Road

# Mysore Road bus terminal first of the four planned to decongest Kempe Gowda bus station
# Rs. 30-crore complex houses separate termini for KSRTC and BMTC buses, commercial complex and business centre
# It has 31 departure and alighting platforms and a 4,500 sq metre parking area


BANGALORE: Launching the state-of-the-art satellite bus terminal on Mysore Road here, the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said here on Saturday that the Centre proposed to unveil a national urban transport policy soon for a coordinated approach to develop urban infrastructure, involving various public utility agencies and the city corporations.

The policy, he said, would bring an end to the current practice where freshly asphalted roads were repeatedly dug up by various departments. To oversee the coordinated effort of these agencies, the policy proposed to appoint an authority in each city.

He said: "We have not been able to keep pace with the growing urban population, give the people safe passage on the roads and a safe transport system. We need to modernise the system and have better coordination."

The city roads, he said, did not have the carrying capacity to handle the rising vehicular traffic. Parking was another major problem. The policy, he said, would address all these issues.

On the international airport project, Mr. Azad recalled how, during his tenure as Union Civil Aviation Minister in 1994, international airports were cleared for Bangalore and Kochi. But while the Kochi airport became a reality five years later, the Bangalore project was yet to take off.

Mr. Azad hoped the Bangalore metro rail project would take off after the second meeting of the Public Investment Board on August 5. The matter had come up at the pre-PIB meeting in December and the first board meeting in June. "All the formalities have been completed," he said.

The Minister for Water Resources and Transport, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, said the Transport Department proposed to build 19 bus stations, five bus terminals soon. It also plans to build set up 48 bus stations and 29 bus depots in the State in the coming years. Besides, the mega project to upgrade the Subhashnagar bus stand by integrating the metro rail was in the pipeline. Global tenders had been called for this project.


The satellite bus terminal is the first of the four planned to decongest the Kempe Gowda bus station.

Built at a cost of Rs. 30 crores, the complex houses separate termini for KSRTC and BMTC buses, pedestrian subways to connect the two, a bus depot, a commercial complex, a business centre complete with Internet connectivity, and closed circuit television sets, among others.

The KSRTC terminus has 31 departure and alighting platforms, a 4,500 sq metre parking area for four-wheelers and two-wheelers, lodging (Yatri Nivas) and a 40-seat air-conditioned deluxe lounge.

The BMTC terminus has three bus bays, where 18 buses could be park at a time. This terminus will help in local networking, connecting different parts of the city to the KSRTC terminus.

The bus depot has a workshop, refuelling station, modern facilities to wash buses and an independent watchtower for bus monitoring.