After Metro & Mono ride get ready for BRT

After Metro & Mono ride get ready for BRT
Vijay Times

t’s like eggs yet to be hatched scenario. While the City is yet to get a feel of the either of the two mass-transit systems (Metro and Mono rail) with an endless number of deadlines, the transport minister N Chaluvarayaswamy on Monday took great pride in announcing that the Bangalore Development Authority would be executing the circular Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) of 72 kilometers on the outer ring road (ORR).

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Bus Rapid Transit System in Indian Cities’, the minister said in order to promote sustainable transportation, the BRT would be interconnected by 25 grid routes. “This will supplement the metro and the mono rails. If I would tell a fellow Bangalorean to give up their two-wheeler or car, travel by Volvo buses instead, you will have the option to reach your destination on priority bus routes with no risk of an accident, and that too at one-third of the cost, no one will or can refuse” claimed Chaluvarayaswamy.

He then announced that the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporataion (BMTC) would soon establish a ‘Bangalore School of Planning and Architecture’ under assistance from the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM).

Cheluvarayaswamy said, “BMTC is moving a proposal to seek 50 percent assistance from the centre. Subject to government approval, the BMTC would provide the initially required corpus of Rs 15 crores in its next budget” he said.

The minister added that the proposed school of planning will serve as the intellectual brain for planning and expanding the City, in guiding civil servants and the political executive on the nitty-gritties of planning. “It will be modelled on the lines of the National School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology at Ahmedabad. The Chief Minister has promised to convene a meeting soon to give the proposal a concrete shape” he said.

He also called public transport buses to be zero taxed. “The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore has prepared a report on public transportation in India commissioned by the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) has concluded that the public transportaion sector is heavily and unfairly taxed. This has to be set-right” he said.

Other plans announced by the minister include truck terminals around ring roads so that 60 percent of consignments are not allowed into the City. “We have also proposed Chennai and Coimbatore type bus terminals at all major entrances into the City so as to prevent inter-city buses from entering the central business district (CBD)”.