Illegal parking of buses irks residents, students

Illegal parking of buses irks residents, students

Anil Kumar Sastry

Pampa Mahakavi Road now resembles a maintenance garage





BANGALORE: Once a beehive of activities by schoolchildren, this important road in one of the oldest localities in the city now resembles a parking lot and a garage.

The road is none other than the Pampa Mahakavi Road in the Shankar Math area, right from its junction on Vani Vilas Road (near the Uttaradi Math) till the City Institute in Chamarajapet. Unmindful of the traffic on this busy road, tourist and factory buses are stationed on either side, hampering smooth movement of vehicles, besides posing a danger to human life.

The road is surrounded by many educational institutions, including the National Primary and Middle School, the National High School, the National College, and the Mahila Seva Samaja. It is a thoroughfare for many students to reach their institutions as well as to make use of the National College Grounds and the Basavanagudi Swimming Pool. Also, many devotees find it difficult to reach Uttaradi Math. Equally affected are the residents of the area who were living in peace till a few years ago. They are unable to bring the vehicles out of their houses following haphazard parking of buses. As if such illegal parking was not enough, bus operators have converted the stretch as a maintenance garage. A few garages located down the road near Chamarajapet offer maintenance services all along the road throughout day and night.

A resident, who did not want to be identified, alleged that buses owned by a prominent politician from Chamarajapet are regularly parked on the road and the police are wary of taking any action. He said as the bus operators cannot park their vehicles in the congested Kalasipalyam area, they have all now moved to Shankar Math area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-West) G.A. Bava told The Hindu that the matter was brought to his notice by the residents and he would ask his officials to take action. Even Chamarajapet MLA B.Z. Zamir Ahmed Khan, who owns a few tourist buses, has asked the police to take action against his buses if they were found parked on the road, he said.