Scramble for Mysore-B'lore buses

Traffic diversion near satellite bus station leads to chaos

Even as people geared up for work after Dasara celebrations, long queues awaited passengers on the Mysore-Bangalore route. The after-festival rush that began on Sunday continued on Monday too. While KSRTC had deployed additional buses to cater to the festival crowd, the frequency of buses was no match.

At the Mysore bus terminus on Monday morning, the long wait for buses stretched up to an hour or two for many passengers. There was huge rush in other stations en route to Bangalore too and passengers were seen desperately waiting for any bus that could take them to their destinations. With some organisations functioning on Bakrid, the serpentine queue started early in the morning, with a large number of passengers aiming to reach the city in time for work.

According to KSRTC chief traffic manager Sangappa, 250 additional buses were deployed on the Mysore-Bangalore route alone, to cater to the seasonal demand. Over the last three to four years, the number of buses deployed has gone up by at least 10 per cent, according to the official.

In all, the transport corporation had pressed into service about 400 extra buses for Dasara across various popular destinations in the State. The service will continue till October 9, he said, adding that they had not received any complaints about the service.

For early morning commuters, the ordeal did not end with the wait for the bus. On account of Id, the police had enforced route diversion at the satellite bus station junction on Mysore Road, the last point for a majority of the buses operating on this route. The problem though was not the diversion of route itself, which applied to all vehicles passing through the junction.

The KSRTC drivers seemed to be unaware of the diversion and were clueless about the alternative route. Anxiety grew for several passengers who had trains scheduled for further travel from Bangalore and were delayed, owing to the traffic confusion. “We were not aware about the diversion earlier,” said Vishwanath K S, GM (Traffic) of KSRTC, said.

S Girish, DCP (Traffic-West), told Deccan Herald that the police had co-ordinated with KSRTC and the traffic was diverted at the satellite bus stand junction on account of Eid, to make it convenient for devotees to offer prayers. The traffic diversion was enforced between 8 am and 11 am, he said.