If you are among the unlucky thousands who commute daily through Bannimantap Main Road, you’ve probably realised by now that this stretch is less of a road and more of a seasonal circus.

Depending on the month, you’re either dodging elephants, squeezing between goats or being dazzled by Homo sapiens behaving like Simians under decorative lights.

Soon, this three-month circus will become a 12-month nightmare as the Government shifts KSRTC Sub-Urban Bus Stand to this location.

Every year, for a whole month, Bannimantap Main Road transforms into a rehearsal ground for Dasara elephants. Twice a day, the jumbos march solemnly down the road. Traffic behind them, however, is anything but solemn.

Cars crawl impatiently, bikers slither like snakes to avoid elephant dung and selfie enthusiasts abandon all sense of safety to park and take a pic with the elephants.

Once the elephants have retreated, Bannimantap slips into its next identity: The boulevard of lights. For an entire month after Dasara, the road is ablaze with grand illuminations. And with lights comes traffic.

Mysuru motorists, faced with a glowing street, suddenly believe they’re in a film set. Cars stop abruptly, families line up in the middle of traffic for photos and teenagers block lanes while recording reels for Instagram. 

As if jumbo jams and illumination jams weren’t enough, Eid season brings one end of the Bannimantap Main Road to a standstill as the sheep market begins.

At the landmark Millennium Circle (LIC Circle), the very first landmark tourists see upon entering our so-called ‘Royal City,’ is a sheep market !

Tempos unload goats and sheep, autos cart them away, food stalls pop up and haggling happens all around.

A tourist might expect Mysuru air to smell of ‘Mysore Mallige’ or sandalwood, instead they are welcomed with the smell  of goat droppings. 

Instead of moving this temporary market into the nearby ‘dead’ Bal Bhavan, the           Government wants to add to this chaos by relocating Mysuru’s Sub-Urban Bus Stand to this busy road !

Currently, the Sub-Urban Bus Stand handles 2,400 services daily and more than 3,000          during Dasara.

Yes, the very road that is already alternately blocked by elephants, goats and Instagrammers will now be asked to absorb thousands of buses.

Moreover, this road is closed for two days during Dasara for procession and Torchlight Parade, then where will buses go? Where will bus commuters go?! Will the Bus Stand be shut?!

The Government insists this move is necessary as acquiring new land would take too long. Immediate action is required, they say. Really?

This is the same Government that swiftly took over Bangalore Palace land, even defying the Supreme Court, but suddenly can’t take over a few acres of its own land in Mysuru?

The dead land that exists right near the current Sub-Urban Bus Stand, the Government Guest House campus.

The truth is, the existing location is ideal. Mysore Palace, Devaraja Market, K.R. Hospital, major educational institutions and the City Bus Stand are all within walking distance.

Move the Bus Stand to Bannimantap and suddenly lakhs of ordinary commuters, most of them poor, will be forced to spend extra money on autorickshaws just to reach their destinations, the same destinations they could earlier reach by foot or city buses.

So much for a Government that keeps reminding us that it is always thinking about the poor.  Looks like this Government is always thinking about itself… by thinking of its vote-bank?

Obviously, when everything and everyone is indicating towards a negative outcome for this relocation, why is our Government so hell bent on building the Bus Stand on Bannimantap Main Road?  

When there are no answers to these obvious questions, then rumours come alive. When logic fails, speculation thrives and questions arise, such as: Is it another vote-bank scheme? 

Unsurprisingly, Opposition Leaders whisper that this relocation has less to do with buses and more to do with votes.

They say, since Bannimantap is dominated by a particular community, shifting the Bus Stand here could bring financial benefits to local businesses, which in turn could bring electoral benefits to the ruling Congress party.

While no one will confirm it outright, the suspicion lingers. And if true, it’s a tragic reminder that in Karnataka, even Bus Stand locations are dictated by vote-bank politics.

For now, people in Bannimantap may see their real estate value go up like the stairway to heaven, but their main road will look like a highway to hell and for the commuters, three months of chaos is about to become a 12-month ordeal.

The bigger picture is, what does this relocation say about Mysuru’s urban planning? That there is none?

We have to ask, between the urban planners,  buses, goats and jumbos, who are the real dumbos? The Bannimantap Bus Stand plan indicates it is certainly not the ones with tusks or horns.

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