KSRTC seeks more land for operations

KSRTC seeks more land for operations
A T Subrahmanya | TNN

Bangalore: The partial shifting of operations from the Kempegowda bus terminus in Majestic for Bangalore Metro Rail work will unleash three years of inconvenience for commuters.
But to reduce the pain, KSRTC urged the state government to provide them with some space in the city to park its fleet because the five terminals earmarked for the diversion are not equipped to handle the large number of buses.
“We need separate land of a larger area to run these operations once the Bangalore Metro work begins and we have to shift out,’’ official sources said.
With the contractor for Metro work finalized on Tuesday at a meeting with Union secretary for transport, work is expected to start in another month in Majestic. Of the total 40 acres at Majestic terminal, while 11 acres are utilized by BMTC, KSRTC works out of 29 acres. With the transport minister announcing that 20 acres would be given to Bangalore Metro for an inter-modal transport hub, KSRTC loses nearly 70% of its land.
For KSRTC, the Kempegowda terminus has been the operating hub with nearly 2,700 schedules and three depots apart from the two depots at Shanthinagar. According to the diversion plan, 1,100 bus schedules would be transferred to other satellite stations and the remaining 1,600 schedules would continue to operate from Kempegowda station.
Nearly 300 schedules will be shifted to the NGEF station, over 150 schedules to the Shanthinagar terminal and other schedules to the Mysore Road satellite station. The BMTC premises in Hebbal and Yeshwanthpur will be utilized until other facilities come up in the next few years. The solution of shifting services to other stations has led to the bigger problems of integrating them with BMTC and other modes of transport and letting passengers know about the schedules from various places.