The Hindu 19.10.2010
KSRTC Kuntikana depot getting ready
Staff Correspondent
| With permits not issued for city buses, this will become the third depot |
NO ARRIVALS YET:The KSRTC Kuntikana depot.
MANGALORE: A new bus depot of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) at Kuntikana here will soon be ready. But the KSRTC will not be able to use it for the purpose for which it was being built, at least in the near future.
Sources in the KSRTC told The Hindu that the corporation had planned to devote this depot exclusively to handle city buses. But the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has not yet permitted the corporation to operate city buses. The KSRTC sought permits for 41 city buses for 396 trips on six routes in 2008.
The routes are Surathkal-Talapady (22 buses); Mangaladevi-Ambedkar Circle-Kunjathbail (nine buses); Mangaladevi-Ambedkar Circle-Bondel (six buses); State Bank of India-Car Street-Tannirbavi (one bus); State Bank of India-Chelyar-MRPL Colony (one bus) and State Bank of India–Amblamogaru (two buses).
Sources said it could handle 100 city buses in the new depot. Except the fuelling station, other infrastructure facilities at the new depot had been completed. The depot would be ready in a month.
Now, it was handling 145 buses in its depot number one at Bejai and 146 buses in depot number two in front of A.J. Hospital and Research Centre, sources said.
Sources made it clear that although its official records had nowhere “specifically mentioned” that the new depot was “meant for its proposed city buses”, its construction was taken up to handle proposed city buses separately without mixing them with other outstation buses.
They said now the KSRTC would be forced to use the new depot to handle other outstation buses. It was yet to take a decision on its future use.
Regional Transport Authority chairman V. Ponnuraj had gone on record that for the time being, the RTA would not issue new permits for any new buses, including KSRTC and private, to operate from the State Bank of India bus terminus as it would only add to traffic congestion in the central business district. The existing road infrastructure in the city did not support for handling more buses.
In addition, an earlier district magistrate had imposed a ban on issuing new permits for new buses to operate from SBI terminus.
However, the right to information activist like G. Hanumantha Kamath and KSRTC officials did not agree with the views of Mr. Ponnuraj. They say that if parking arrangement on main roads was properly managed more buses could be allowed.
