Bus terminals also smartening up

Bus terminals also smartening up
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Soon Bangaloreans will walk into improved bus stations with facilities that could catch them by surprise.

Not only are bus stations within the city being upgraded, but the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is also showering those in semi-urban townships with new facilities.

Thirty one bus stations in and around Bangalore under the jurisdiction of the KSRTC will have new toilets, seating arrangements, concretised roads, parking and even landscaped gardens! The KSRTC, after starting a hi-tech satellite bus station on Mysore road, plans on seven more such bus stations, and is now looking at modernising all existing bus stations in the city.

Major improvements will take place in Kanakapura, Chikmagalur, Harohalli, Tumkur and Kolar bus stations.

And this is only the Stage I of the entire project, which will cost the KSRTC Rs 27 crores. The State Government if putting in Rs 12 crores, while the KSRTC is taking a loan from HUDCO bank for Rs 15 crores. “The bus stations will have new toilets, a new canteen and comfortable seating arrangements. There will be a spacious parking space for commuter vehicles on the outside.

In rural areas, where there have been complaints of potholes, we will concretise the roads to the bus station and inside the station, “ said Jagadeesh Chandra, Chief Civil Engineer and Estate Officer of KSRTC. What’s more, the existing bus stations will be jointly constructed by the KSRTC and external consultants like Sundaram Consultants, Wilbur and Smith Associates and the Consulting Engineering Services Ltd., to name a few. Designers such as the Transport Training Institute and Gruha Vinyas will landscape each station. The upgradation will start in a month and will be completed in March 2006.

There is more in store for the State. The KSRTC has plans of starting a 12 metre-long air-conditioned bus and ‘anytime, anywhere’ reservation booths in the State.

The Dasara to Vijayadashami season will witness 500 extra buses commuting to and from the City.