Decade-old dream will come true today

State Transport Minister Ashoka to inaugurate three routes of City transport system

The City will get a local transport system on Saturday, after waiting for more than a decade. State Transport Minister R Ashoka will inaugurate the system at the new bus stand.

The new buses brought in for the City transport mostly remained unused in the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) depot. Some of the buses were used, but only as part of the Samparka Sarige for rural transport, to places like Chintamani and Malur.

Now, however, the first three routes of transport have been marked and four buses have been allotted for travel from Kolar bus stand till Vadagur Gate, which is a distance of 13 km, and from Sangondahalli to Hasala Gate (9 km). Two more buses will travel between Kolar bus stand and Pooja Kalyana Mantapa, a distance of 4 km.

The Kolar-Vadagur Gate buses will be available once every 30 minutes. Buses for the other two routes will be available every 25 minutes.

The ticket rates have been set at Rs 9 for the Kolar-Vadagur route and the Sangondahalli to Hasala Gate route. The Kolar-Pooja Kalyana Mantapa route will cost Rs five per journey.

Every bus used for the system is provided with LED route plates costing Rs 19.03 lakh and loud speaker facilities to inform the passengers of the stops. Wide doors and windows have been provided for the convenience of passengers. A new air conditioning system has also been installed.

Objection

The dream of having such a system in the City goes back more than a decade, to 2001, but was postponed about eight times. The KSRTC faces a lot of objections although the transport system is to be inaugurated on Saturday.

“The first complaint is that the bus routes are not specifically city routes, unlike the Majestic-KR Circle or Majestic-Corporation routes in Bangalore. The bus stops too have not been specified,” said Nagaraj Shenoy, a resident of MB Road.

“The Corporation has not organised a proper meeting to discuss the issue. The officers have also not bothered to take suggestions and advice from the citizens or even accept requests or memoranda from us,” he added.

High rate

The ticket rate for the bus routes is a second issue of objection. A trip on two of the routes are charged Rs 9, in contrast to the auto rickshaw charge, which is merely Rs 5. The extra four rupees add to the woes of the public, as there is every chance of auto rickshaw drivers too demanding a higher rate from now.

“We pay just Rs 5 to travel from Tamaka to the City. If we have to pay an additional four rupees to travel by bus, we would rather avoid such a journey,” Suresh, a resident of Tamaka, explains.

“The city transport should provide us good facilities economising on time and charging us low. But the present system is working like a rural or suburban system, charging high for a short distance.

This will only inconvenience citizens immensely,” says S H Chowdappa.
The entire process of climbing in and out of a bus at a specified distance will be people-friendly only if the journey charge is much lower say most citizens. “Otherwise, the city transport is merely a burden on us,” they say.

Booking centre

Many citizens also feel that the ticket booking centre at the new bus stand in the City should be upgraded.

“Although we book the ticket here in Kolar the charges are the same as in Bangalore. Also, tickets for buses of other states’ transport corporations should be made available at the booking centre in Kolar.

The excuse of lack or failure of the computer and internet is not acceptable any longer,” they add.