Mysuru’s transportation needs: NGO urges Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to conduct integrated study

A view of the KSRTC suburban bus stand in Mysuru. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The imperatives of decongesting the city centre has caught the attention of the stakeholders, including civil society groups, as evident in a spate of developments pertaining to it.

On the one hand, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has approached the Government to clear a project for ₹100 crore to construct a new terminal at Bannimantap. At the same time various organisations and individuals have aired suggestions that include utilisation of existing infrastructure such as the satellite bus stands or conducting a long-term study of the projected growth of Mysuru before finalising any plan.

In continuation with the ongoing exercise on decongesting the city, Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP), an NGO advocating for better administration and civic causes, has written a letter to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah drawing his attention to the ‘’unmanageable congestion’’ at suburban bus stand in Mysuru.

Referring to the idea of KSRTC which intends to construct a new bus terminal at a cost of ₹100 crore on its own land at Bannimantap, the MGP, cautioned that it appeared to be a quick fix solution and not a permanent one.

‘’While this sounds fine to solve the current crisis, KSRTC has no idea of what will happen in the future when the population of Mysuru grows as also the number of vehicles. It is also not clear if the roads near Bannimantapa will be able to take the increasing load of vehicle movement’’, said the signatories to the letter Mr. Shreeshail Ramannanavar, president, MGP and Bhamy V.Shenoy, founding working president.

‘’The KSRTC’s DPR to build another bus stand at Bannimantap is not based on any long-term study of the future transportation needs nor has it taken an integrated look at all the factors affecting the traffic-needs of people to travel from railway station to bus stands, local bus stations to suburban bus stand, congested traffic in central business district, role of private bus stand, needed parking spaces, etc’’, according to the MGP members.

They pointed out that under JNNURM several bus stations were built including Kuevmpunagar Intermodal transit centre, Sattagalli bus station, R.S. Naidu urban bus station, Yelval bus station the cumulative cost of constructing them being ₹108.59 crore more than 10 years ago. ‘’But what is dismaying is that some of these stations are remaining idle today or not used to their maximum capacity’’, rued the citizens.

The Chief Minister was urged to constitute an expert committee to develop an integrated long-term traffic model with optimum way of locating bus stand so as to give maximum convenience for traveller and commuters. It said a final decision should be taken only after conducting an integrated study of the transportation needs of Mysuru for over at least 50 years.