City Market sees no end to traffic woes

City Market sees no end to traffic woes

Buses are diverted to a narrow road leading to chaos

Senthalir S. Bangalore
People in Bangalore dread visiting the City Market because of the stench and waste strewn around the place. Adding to their woes is the growing traffic snarls.
The buses are diverted to a narrow road from Town Hall connecting to the market. Along with the BMTC buses, hundreds of private buses also ply through the same road, thereby increasing the density of traffic here.
Commenting on the traffic situation here, Chandrashekar, ACP Traffic (West), said the work would be completed in three months and efforts were being made to ease the traffic. It is not just the work on the pedestrian subway that is hindering the movement of traffic near Town Hall and the market. The badly maintained roads are posing a serious problem for public.
Prachi B, a student, who travels everyday from Town Hall to her college, complained about the lack of bus shelter there. "Earlier the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike had dug up the road that connects to the corporation for a pedestrian subway. Then buses that moved from the market to other places had difficulty navigating through the heavy traffic. But, after completion of works, the roads were not asphalted properly and no bus shelter was provided for commuters," she said.
While this was the problem faced by commuters moving from the market towards the corporation, people traveling from Kalasipalya market seem to face more problems than traffic jams. In this place, BMTC buses share the bus stand with the private buses inside the market. More than 200 BMTC buses ply from Kalasipalya market. People who travel to Magadi Road, Rajajinagar, Banashankari, Kanakapura, Jalahalli cross and Peenya have to board buses from here. Even bus drivers and conductors complain of the unclean area and bad roads. "Though BBMP has been entrusted with the responsibility of cleaning this area, this part is kept unclean. We have complained many times but nothing has been done," said Muthuraj, BMTC traffic controller. Besides, since private buses also take the same route, the buses here take more than 20 minutes to move out of the bus stand, rued a bus driver.