JOIN USBRTS lane may soon become reality
In a bid to streamline the traffic flow, an exclusive lane for buses or the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) will soon come up between MG Road and Hope Farm via Whitefield.
The design of BRTS and launch date will be decided in the meeting to be attended by the officials of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT).
“The design of the exclusive lane is ready. The design will be finalised during the meeting of BMTC, BBMP and DULT officials, to be convened soon. Once the design is finalised, work on the project will commence. It was prepared following a survey conducted over the last few weeks by the BMTC and two other agencies,” BMTC Chief Traffic Manager (Operations) B C Renukeshwar told Deccan Herald.
The BMTC official said the lane, which has been tentatively finalised, will pass through the old Airport Road, Domlur, Kundalahalli Gate, Marathahalli, Whitefield and Hope Farm and many stops on the stretch.
Design to be finalised
The BMTC, the BBMP and the DULT officials have to decide on whether the bus bay should look different from the usual bus stops, on the facilities and about the distance to be maintained between two bus bays among others.
DULT Chairperson Manjula told Deccan Herald. “Our team has been working on the lane for a quite some time. The design will be finalised soon in the meeting with the BMTC and BBMP officials and the work will commence thereafter. It is not possible to give the exact date of the commencement of work. But it will be sooner than later,” the official said.
Experiments in the past
In the past, several proposals to introduce the BRTS fell apart for some reason or the other. It may be recalled that a transport survey, carried out in 2007, recommended Bangalore BRTS with 14 routes measuring 282 kilometres.
In 2009, on recommendation by the Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development (ABIDe), the City started developing 12 radial corridors for land-based public transport.
A distinctly branded bus service called Big10 was started by BMTC as part of the project. This project has been fairly successful with the route from Brigade Road junction to several destinations becoming popular.
BRTS was also considered by BDA for Outer Ring Road, but the road was instead used for converting a signal-free corridor. BRTS has also been talked about for the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR). However, since PRR itself is still in design and planning stage, there has not been much progress regarding BRTS.
Bus priority system
Praja Bangalore, a citizen advocacy group had been pushing for Bus Priority System, wherein there would be dedicated lanes, specialised signals, underpasses for the buses only at the choke points on critical radial corridors. The City could move towards full-fledged BRTS once the benefits of Bus Priority help work over the negative perceptions, the advocacy group felt.