Urban News

Transport Minister R Ashok told presspersons here on Tuesday that the decision to have a separate transport corporation for Mysore was taken to meet certain norms that the Centre placed in National Urban Renewal Mission Programme, under which it allotted some 150 buses to the city, which has also attracted World Bank funds for its development, as well as keeping in mind the future development of the city, he said.

Currently there are four transport corporations in the state.

Besides a new corporation, the transport department is considering to start intracity bus services in cities that have grown beyond the radius of five km. Ashok said in the first phase, bus services would be started in Tumkur and Mandya, for which about 50 buses will be purchased. The Transport Department has planned to start city bus services in district headquarters such as Tumkur, Gulbarga, Hubli and Mangalore, Ashoka detailed, while adding that bus stands in Hassan, Bantwal Cross Road and Hunsur will be developed under publicprivatepartnership (PPP) model.

The transport minister informed that metro work was set to start soon in the premises of Kempegowda Bus Terminal and that 7.2 acres of land had been handed over to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for the project at a cost of Rs 75 crore. He said keeping this in view, it was decided to construct satellite bus stations in different places in the city, including Peenya. Ashok said land for the same had already been acquired.

Further, he informed that the traffic and transit management centre in Kengeri would be named after Kengal Hanumanthaiah.

He added the centre coming up at Shantinagar would be named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The Minister said the KSRTC became debt-free two months ago after clearing a loan amount of Rs 500 crore.

To involve people into the decision-making process, traffic cops directly approached citizens, citizen organisations and establishments for their inputs. The matter of parking outside schools, for example, was discussed with school administration, students and parents. Based on the maps, ward officers have been given orders for the painting of parking spaces and installation of sign boards at various places. Assistant city engineer and traffic planner with PMC, Shrinivas Bonala, said, “The work of painting of parking spaces has already started. It will be in full swing after Diwali when rain stops completely and repairing at some of roads is done.” Dilip Kudale, co-ordinator with engineering wing of PCMC said, “The work will start in the city and on highways.”

Patil said, “We had to review the entire parking plan to the minute. For example at many places P1-P2 plan for even and odd days was unnecessarily in place and was not in place at at some points where it was necessary. No parking spaces were marked at points which should have been allocated for parking. In the new plan we have prohibited parking for some distance on both the sides of bus stops on roads, specially which were causing problems for buses.”

The new plan also marks the parking lots for bus stands and railway stations in the city. Patil said, “Bus stands and railway station authorities have been asked to arrange for their own parking lots. It is the service providers duty to arrange for the parking of its customers.” He also added that even after the marking are in place they would be open for further changes if necessary.