The Hindu  13.12.2010

Mobility card for seamless travel soon

Staff Reporter

Lions Club organises ‘Lifeline – Road Safety'

BANGALORE: Common mobility card, offering seamless travel to Bangaloreans, will be in place within eight months in the city, according to Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Managing Director Syed Zameer Pasha.

Along with the card, intelligent transport system, featuring global positioning system (GPS) and electronic ticketing machine will be introduced, Mr. Pasha told members of Lions Club who had gathered at the Meet of Region II, which had the theme, “Lifeline – Road Safety”, here on Sunday.

The intelligent transport system will help the corporation to streamline its operations and offer more facilities to passengers, he said. BMTC will soon enter into a memorandum of understanding with IL & FS Trust Company Ltd. (ITCL), a subsidiary of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd., promoted by Unit Trust of India, Housing Development Finance Corporation and Central Bank of India.

The corporation is also working towards finalising the Bus Rapid Transit System along with the Bangalore Development Authority and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. The BDA has agreed to offer one lane each on all its flyovers and elevated roads and the BBMP will provide the space carved out of widening of roads to BMTC buses, Mr. Pasha said. It is not for “movement of vehicles” but for “movement of people” as each bus is equal to 20 cars in terms of number of passengers transported.

In his keynote address, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood said road widening is not at all the solution for the increasing traffic problem in Bangalore. As soon as the road is widened and more flyovers are built, the space is occupied by more number of vehicles.

The solution lies in providing a good public transport system. Mumbai, with a population of 15 million, has just 2 million private vehicles whereas Bangalore with a population of 8 million has 4 million private vehicles, he pointed out. Mumbai's success is only due to the presence of a robust public transport system, Mr. Sood noted.

BMTC, Mr. Sood said, has been doing excellent job within its limitations and constraints.

Even Bangalore Metro, when it becomes fully operations, might not be able to solve the traffic problems in Bangalore, if people keep on buying and using private vehicles ignoring public transport system, Mr. Sood cautioned.

Lions Region II chairperson R.A. Garg presided. On the occasion, the Lions organisations felicitated 25 BMTC drivers who had received the Chief Minister's gold medals for accident-free driving. They are Balaraju, Chandraraju, Sabiulla, Krishnappa, Narayanappa, Mohammed Shaik, Mohammed Peer, Kenchanna, Hanumanthaiah, Anjanappa, Dasharahta, C. Arumugam, Rangaswamy, Srinivas Iyer, Jayaraju, Krishnappa, Sridharmurthy, Suresh Rao, Manjunath, Venkatachari, Balaiah, Bahadur, Siddappa, Reddappa, Changamaraju, Balaraju and Purushothamma.

Lions Club donated two water coolers and one coffee vending machine to BMTC.

The Times of India  11.12.2010

NAGPUR: Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had recently promised to make Nagpur an international city. But it seems that the assurance may take some more time to realise as the city grapples with many problems.

Finding a space for parking city buses and lack of centralised stand are the two major causes of worry for Nagpurians as the Nagpur Municipal Corporation's search since March 27, 2007 continues till date. With the number of Starbuses in the fleet increased to 470, the traffic chaos it causes on the roads could be anybody's guess.

Mayor Archana Dehankar said that "If the chief minister is really serious about what he said, then he should provide four acres of land behind Mor Bhavan for developing the city bus stand. NMC has been making this demand since long." Presently, the land has been reserved under city development plan. Dehankar said that Mor Bhavan stand is not crowded and therefore ideal for smooth handling of the bus service. If the piece of four acres land behind is given, then the parking problem could be solved, she said. However, Panjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth (PKV) which owns the land has turned down NMC's request. "I hope that the land would be handed over to the civic body for a bus terminal if Chavan addresses the long-pending issue," she said.

Meanwhile, the entire fleet of 240 buses sanctioned under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has been commissioned. Of these, 180 buses were rotting outside the city for the last 10 months. With the addition of these buses, the strength of city bus service has gone up to 470. This includes 230 Starbuses, 150 big and 80 small, owned by Starbus operator Vansh Nimay Infraprojects Limited.

The addition of buses has helped introduce services on new routes like Pardi-Hingna-Pardi via Ring Road and Hingna-Dighori via Ramna Maroti. Some more routes have also been launched which has benefitted daily commuters. But the latest addition has complicated the traffic problem as there is hardly any space left for bus parking. It has also worsened the trouble citizens face while travelling as buses pass through and halt to pick up passengers, said an NMC official.

Mahesh Morone, executive director of Nagpur Mahanagar Parivahan Limited (NMPL), said that NMC has handed over five acres of temporary land in Jaitala on Hingana Road. Besides this, NMC workshop at Baidynath Square (33,000 sq ft), land near Zero Mile Stone (17,000 sq feet) and Patwardhan Ground (a sufficient place to accommodate over 100 buses) for night parking provide a lot of relief. But the problem of city bus parking could be solved only if PKD land and Mor Bhavan are handed over to the civic body, Morone said.