A common question that every Bengalurean asks nowadays is, “Have you decided to settle down in Mysuru?” If the answer is ‘yes,’ then his or her immediate reply is, “This is the best decision you have taken. Bengaluru is gone. Traffic is a nightmare.”

Is Mysuru really a paradise for driving on the city roads? When compared to Bengaluru, it is a real song to drive because hardly there are any traffic jams. But can we be complacent about it? The writing is on the wall and if we do not wake up and take proper measures, the day is not far off when we will go the Bengaluru way.

In this write-up, R. Chandra Prakash highlights with facts and figures the problems that plague Mysuru traffic, the areas where the traffic muddle is there and also comes out with solutions as to what needs to be done to ease it.—Editor

By R. Chandra Prakash

Recent write-ups in Star of Mysore are an indicative of the fact that the city centre traffic problem has caught the attention of concerned citizens. And this augurs well for Mysuru and Mysureans. This will make the People’s Representatives of every hue and Officers of every Department to take note of citizens’ anguish and to take their responsibilities seriously.  What is the nature of City Centre?  Who are the main contributors to Traffic Muddle out there?

City Centre: A Commercial Hub

Erstwhile Makkaji Chowk has spawned new and modern commercial establishments around Devaraja Market, on roads such as Sayyaji Rao Road, Dhanvantri Road and the new Devaraj Urs Road. Even the old Dodda Pete, that is, Ashoka Road, Shivarampet and Chamaraja Double road have now become very busy commercial area. Heritage Devaraja Market continues to be the epicentre of   city’s commercial activities.

K.R. Hospital Complex in the City Centre has expanded with the establishment of newer Departments and services. It has given rise to a large number of pathological labs and pharmaceutical shops. Being the only large and heritage government hospital in Mysuru District, K.R. Hospital complex attracts exceptionally large number of patients from rural areas apart from city itself. Thus, there is no denying the fact that, despite emergence of new extensions with commercial complexes, city centre continues to be our Commercial Hub. Mysore Master Plan has categorised this area as Central Business District (CBD).

Independent mode of transport

Further, over past decades the number of private vehicles has grown at a very fast rate. Mysuru city has nearly seven lakh vehicles of different categories. Two- wheelers, followed by four-wheelers, constitute a very large chunk of total private vehicles. This indicates citizens’ preference to independent mode of transport. Prevalence of concentrated commercial activities within the city centre along with preference to private transport vehicles have certainly resulted in heavy vehicular traffic in the city centre.

However, it would be missing the real problem if we think that the city centre traffic muddle is entirely due to above reasons. Widened roads within the city centre would have provided adequate scope for the smooth flow of the fast increasing private vehicles. The real culprit in the city centre traffic muddle is the emergence of self-constricting “Transport Triangle” within the city centre.

Railway Station, Suburban Bus Station and the City Bus Station are located on three points of a triangle formed by Sayyaji Rao Road, Irwin Road and the Bengaluru – Nilgiri Road. And this is a very narrow triangle in that. The distances between the two angles do not exceed 1.5 km. This is what we would like to identify as “Transport Triangle”, which is our own Bermuda Triangle of sort. Most important of all, CBD is located within this triangle ! Let us consider functioning and consequences of this Transport Triangle on the city centre.

Railway Station

Railways run 35 pairs of daily trains (which means daily 70 trains, either departing or arriving at the station), five Weekly trains, three Bi-Weekly trains, and one Weekly train from the station. Every day there are, on an average, 28,000 to 30,000 outgoing passengers; and on an average, 30,000 incoming passengers at the Railway Station. This means that on an average 60,000 passengers are making use of the Railway Station. Not all trains carry same number of passengers. It is mainly the Bengaluru-Mysuru oriented train traffic which account for major chunk of Railway passengers arriving at or departing from the city Railway Station.

Part of arriving passengers would be heading towards Suburban Bus Station to catch their buses to reach their destinations in the rural hinterland. So also, a large number of Railway passengers could be heading to City Bus Station to complete their onward journey to destination, in case they cannot have a city bus at the Railway Station.

Railway passengers make use of buses, autorickshaws, four-wheelers and two-wheelers to arrive at or depart from Railway Station. One can imagine the vehicular traffic generated by the Railway Station on Irwin Road, Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road and now on KRS Road.

Since the CFTRI side of the Railway Station does not have full service of ticket booking, bus services, etc., major portion of Railway passengers prefer to use the old Railway Office side entrance/exit. This further increased the passenger load on Irwin Road and JLB Road.

Thus, heavy vehicular traffic generated by the Railway Station within this narrow triangle cannot be ignored.

[To be continued]