No adequate lighting in city bus shelters

Amid rising complaints from the residents about the lack of illumination in bus shelters, the Mayor on Thursday directed the traffic engineering cell to fix the lights in all the BBMP bus shelters.

Arthur Solomon, a civic activist had complained to the Mayor and senior BBMP officials about insufficient lighting at bus shelters, raising a major safety concern. “Apart from the shelters along the Krumbigal Road, bus shelters in the city seldom have proper lighting. The passengers, especially women and senior citizens, feel unsafe,” said Arthur Solomon.

The city has 8,000 bus stops and only 2,000 stops have shelters. The shelters lack amenities for passengers using public transport. “After I have complained to the BBMP, the Mayor has directed the traffic engineering cell to take immediate action and has alerted the concerned contractors to fix the lights. If they fail, they will be blacklisted,” he added.

Meanwhile, DH accessed the mayor’s order. “It is found that most bus shelters in BBMP limits lack lighting facilities. These shelters should be lit up immediately. Stern action will be taken against the concerned officials who fail to fix the problem,” it said.

Residents complain most bus shelters have turned into advertisement panels, with no space even to display the name of the bus stop. The lighting used is exclusively for advertisements.

“The bus shelter in Malleswaram 18th Cross is so scary due to the lack of lighting facilities. The street light there is not working too,” said Rashmi Muralidhar, a Malleswaram resident.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has 2,212 designated bus shelters. The BBMP had called tenders for 1,200 shelters, to be built under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.