The bus stops here Majestic station to be shut for 3 years

The bus stops here Majestic station to be shut for 3 years

The inter-state and intra-state bus service hub will make space for the Metro. The bad news: Commuters will pay a price because the alternatives to the KSRTC bus station, which handles 2,700 buses, are underprepared to take the load

Srikanth Hunasavadi & Shwetha S. Bangalore



Outstation bus travellers, entering or leaving the city, can expect severe inconvenience in the days to come.
The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus station in Majestic, a major inter-city transport hub, will be shut down next week for three years to make way for Namma Metro works, transport minister R Ashok said on Thursday. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus stand, however, will continue its local schedules from the existing location, the minister said.
Utter chaos is expected as the transport department is shifting the KSRTC's outstation services to satellite bus terminals, which are not ready to take the sudden increase in passenger and bus traffic. The Majestic bus station sees around 2,700 arrivals and departures everyday. Apart from destinations in Karnataka, buses also run from Bangalore to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry and Goa.
However, all these outstation service operations will now be shifted to satellite bus terminals in Shantinagar, NGEF, Hebbal, Kengeri (Mysore Rd), and Balekai Mandi, Ashok said. Many train travellers going and coming from the railway station, opposite the Majestic bus station, will be forced to travel to the satellite bus terminals, some on the city's outskirts.
Some of these bus terminals, like Shantinagar and Kengeri, have limited capacity to handle operations. The other bus terminals are yet to commence infrastructure works to sustain bigger passenger volumes and run increased number of outstation bus services.
KSRTC officials said commuters would face problems at the satellite bus terminals simply because of poor planning. Gaurav Gupta, Managing Director of KSRTC, admitting that commuters would face inconvenience, said they would try and minimise the discomfort.