Poor planning turns Peenya bus stand into a white elephant

Lack of proper access renders precious infrastructure useless

The two-storey Basaveshwara Bus Terminal of KSRTC at Peenya, built at a cost of Rs 37 crore on six acres and aimed at reducing the burden on the Kempegowda Bus Station (KBS), seems to have been rendered useless. 

Almost one-and-a-half years after its inauguration in August 2014, the terminal now wears a deserted look as not many passengers come there to board buses. The buses have started departing again from the KBS.

The terminal was constructed with 17 platforms on the upper floor and 26 in the basement. 

It has a few commercial shops, a reservation counter, large parking area at the entrance, canteen, luggage room, passengers’ restroom, lavatories, waiting room, among other facilities.

When it was opened for public use, buses (including luxury ones) belonging to Hubballi, Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Hassan, Hosapete and Ballari zones used to depart from the new terminal. Buses bound for Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Mangaluru and northern parts of Karnataka too departed from there. 

As the new terminal is located around 1.5 km off the main road and has no adequate bus facilities to reach there, passengers found it inconvenient. They chose to travel to their destinations in private buses operated from Majestic and Kalasipalyam areas. Due to this, the KSRTC started incurring losses. 

The KSRTC continued to operate buses from this terminal for around three months, hoping that the situation would improve. When this did not happen, the Transport department decided to shift the services back to KBS.

Ordinary buses stopped coming to this terminal as it was not profitable for them.

After drivers were issued memos, the buses come here only for entries in the timekeeping book. Luxury buses do come here, but only when passengers choose this terminal as their boarding point. 

The Bengaluru Central Division had introduced around 40 ‘Samparka Sarige’ buses to ferry passengers to the Peenya terminal from KBS. But the initiative was not successful as passengers relied on private buses. 

‘Forced to spend money’Passengers were forced to shell out extra money on autorickshaws, taxis among other transport systems to reach home from the Peenya terminal. 

On the other hand, private buses dropped them in the Majestic and Kalasipalyam areas.