Santa, spare us the jam

Santa, spare us the jam
Deccan Herald

This festival season is not very different, what with every Bangalorean wanting to get out of the City in a great hurry. As always, with hundreds of last minute travellers with no prior plan of action heading...

This festival season is not very different, what with every Bangalorean wanting to get out of the City in a great hurry. As always, with hundreds of last minute travellers with no prior plan of action heading in various directions, the net result is traffic snarls, and more traffic snarls.

If not for a good auto driver or a good sense of direction, going around the City on Saturday was an ordeal. Christmas and New Year have resulted in packed shopping malls and entertainment centres. And, this despite the citizens being desperate to get out.

According to auto driver Syed, all approach roads to the KSRTC bus stand have been on a jam continuum. “It took me nearly one hour to get to the bus-stand from Mysore Bank circle last night (Friday). The traffic condition here has been this way since yesterday afternoon, while today I took the Race Course-Anand Rao Circle road to get towards this side,” added the frustrated Syed.

Nothing can ever be different at the City bus stand or the railway station, as being jostled and getting your feet stamped by everybody around you has become a common scenario.

Usha Jayaram, with two young girls and lot of baggage, was one such traveller stuck at the bus stand at 8 pm in the night. "I took the risk and came here thinking that I could manage and get tickets to Mysore. Having stood for

nearly an hour in the queue, I decided to head back home, as there was no hope. Also the kids were getting restless. I am very tired of all this. No more holidays for me this year," she said, adding that getting back to her home in Sarjapur was another headache she faced on the chilly night.

Mr Hari Krishna, another traveller had headed towards the bus stand to board a bus to Tirupati. "I tried getting tickets yesterday, but failed. Toady I am told there are no special buses to Tirupati. So, I have to take a private bus to get there," said this MNC employee. At the railway station, people stood in queues for long hours due to a technical problem. According to railway sources, the server was down for close to two hours in the evening on Saturday, which resulted in slowing down the issue of tickets.

KSRTC officials, however, stated that 150 special services had been added for Saturday, while the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu service providers added close to 100 buses put together.

Prakash Babu, Divisional Controller, KSRTC said close to 120 buses had been added just to Dharmasthala. “The demand is more for other destinations like Tirupathi, and several regions in Kerala. However, most of our reservations have been made for Dharmasthala, both this weekend and for December 31 night,” he added.

The usually crowded City roads on Saturdays had to bear the brunt of a long weekend, excited shoppers and lots of travellers, making it unusually difficult to move about.

The Garuda Mall alone had around 90,000 milling around. Uday Garudachar, MD, Maverick Holdings Pvt Ltd, Garuda Mall, said the shopping centre on an average received around 70,000 people on weekends. “This season has been phenomenal. Yes, parking has posed a problem, but we have done very good business,” he added.