Sir,

I, along with my wife, took a ride on ‘Ambaari’ double decker bus yesterday night, to see the city illumination. I had to book online as I was told by KSTDC enquiry that the tickets have to be booked online only.

I chose the roof top seats with high expectations, since the beauty of illumination is highly appealing when an illuminated street is viewed with the cascade of lights. Much to my dismay, as I sat on my reserved seat, I noticed that the body of the bus at the front was high enough to obstruct a view of the front. I could enjoy the lighting looking sideways only.

Though standing was not the right thing to do, even that did not help very much. Added to that, the co-passengers stood up because of their understandable exuberance and selfie takings.

The scheduled departure time was 8 pm as per the ticket, and there was more than one bus with different codes and those buses were arriving at different time from their previous trips leading to confusion for people to board. Some buses left earlier leading to arguments by passengers who had valid tickets for 8 pm departure.

Passengers had to wait on pavements as the buses were stationed on the main road, for pick up, in front of KSTDC office. All in all, it was a case of “swalpa adjust madkolli swamy” and there was no professional management at any point.

Last but not the least, a matter which may not directly relate to KSTDC is about the car parking for localites who would come in their two wheelers/four wheelers to reach the starting point. The only available place is a lane opposite to the KSTDC office, leading to Guru Residency. I was just fortunate to get a parking space there. In the coming days as the number of visitors usually swells, one might be lucky if one can get a parking space.

– Dr. A.S. Aravinda Murthy (Retd. Professor), Mysuru, 28.9.2022

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