Sir,
We are seeing electric buses under the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in various cities of India, but our Mysuru City bus service is still way behind. Forget electric buses, even the basic buses in Mysuru is decade-old except for the addition of a few Volvo buses and new fleet.
Some of the flaws in Mysuru bus system are:
1. Pure Hub-Spoke Model with all the buses passing through City Bus Stand (CBS) and almost 90 percent buses ending its journey there. There are no routes except if I remember Route No. 10, which does not go via CBS. Even to travel from Vidyaranyapuram to Kuvempunagar, one has to go via CBS — Why not circular routes interconnecting areas? It still remains a distant dream.
Routes connecting opposite ends of the city, if possible passing through CBS with a good frequency (like the current 80 route, although with less frequency) can help commuters.
2. Buses have to roam around the Palace to enter Bus Stand which is around 1 to 1.5 kms extra, costing diesel and time — Why not make a contra flow lane from Sanskrit Patashala towards CBS allowing buses to be on right lane to enter CBS and from CBS towards Palace to exit CBS near Town Hall. This might need a bit of road widening, but worth the effort.
3. Railway Station and Suburban Bus Stand are not well connected. A passenger alighting at Suburban Bus Stand has to walk towards Taluk Office to catch the bus to CBS, unless the traveller is North bound like Vijayanagar / Udayagiri etc. — Why not bus stop near Suburban Bus Stand arrival area towards CBS with two Bus Bays, one for Inter-City buses and another for City buses, just like done in Mandya.
4. Major roads of the city like Mahadevapura Road, Hunsur Road , Bannur Road are seeing surge in people movement. Frequent and quick buses on these routes can help commuters.
5. Majority of the educational institutions lie between JLB Road and CBS like Maharaja High School, Marimallappa, Sadvidya, Maharani etc. Students have to travel a long way to CBS by walking. A small circular bus service during peak hours connecting Suburban Bus Stand, Railway Station, Maharaja College, Marimallappa – Sadvidya Junction – 100 feet road can help students a lot to connect to their buses at CBS / Suburban Bus Stand or even take a train at Railway Station.
6. A comprehensive study by any reputed voluntary organisation or even an Engineering College Computer Science Department and analyse the data using the current ITS information to schedule and augment buses.
Our elected representatives are also sitting silent on optimising city buses but they talk about bringing Metro which would be a White Elephant for Mysuru.
– Vasanth, JP Nagar, 12.3.2022
You can also mail us your views, opinions, and stories to [email protected]
Mysore has grown in population and city limits over the last few years. There is really a need to re-align the bus routes. If one commutes in their personal vehicle, it takes less than half an hour to travel between Hebbal and Kuvempunagar. But if one were to use public bus then it takes more than 1 hour to cover the same distance. Direct buses should be introduced connecting different areas while skipping CBS. Also, as the writer mentioned, city buses encircling Mysore Palace is waste of time and fuel. Some alternative route must be thought through. One of main reason for people preferring own vehicles for commuting is to save time. If city buses can optimize the routes then surely more will start using public transport.
This is an excellent and actionable step. In fact MGP has over the years attempted several times to work with KSRTC. MGP has also got a report developed by NIE and at JCE has organized a meeting on this topic. So also at ATI by getting the involvement of different stakeholders.
It would be great if the author of this letter gets in touch with the active Executive Members of MGP and works with them to take it forward. It is only when we the people get involved our public sector institutions which are not known for consumer friendly attitude will function to meet our requirements.
All these suggestions about bus routes ibeome a mere academic exercise, when the Mysore’s road and rail links to Kerala becomes a reality within a few years.
Malayalees are craving to use the Mysore -Gulf countries straight air route to bring in all kinds of contraband goods, gold smuggling on the top of these to Mysore, as they do in the 4 airports in Kerala which are saturated with this kind of illegal traffic. The result of this new waves of immigrants from Keral, massive in number doubling the current population of Mysore, means , Mysore boundaries will be further expanded, properties and businesses to launder the illegal wealth cropping up, making these destinations almost impossible in terms of time, by bus routes. Also, the injection of illegal wealth , brings thousands of cars into the city.
Mysoreans are already gripped with the fever of car culture, and with the new fleet of cars arriving and show rooms opening every where by Malayalees who launder the wealth acquired through smuggling, ensures that the car culture gets stronger and stronger,with the bus travel sidelined and that will be the new face of this city within a decade.
Hello Barmy Shenoy
She MGP-that is the Grahachara Parishad the outfit consisting of a bunch of retirees, who along with massive numbers of outsiders flooding into the city in the late 1970s and early 1980,, ensured the destruction of the forests that located outside the wonderful city, so that they have had their homesteads. Until then, this city had no transport problems, with the busses touching all parts of the city.
The very same perpetrators are now wearing green credentials are howling ecosystem destruction!
The new comers who had no links with the city prior to the invasion, like some of the MGP members, created all the ecological problems this city experience then and grappling with now. Until then, there were no issues with the Chamundi Hill too, as it handled a manageable numbers of devotees., as a serene place.
In order to see how badly this once compact city is destroyed by waves of outsiders, it requires Mysoreans like us, who live in Western countries, to experience the shocking sights in every visit. This once beautiful city has reached the point of no return. The city where we grew up, had our education and worked for a time is gone.
This MGP of retirees who have no better work to do like Chandra Prakash , who wrote two pathetic series of articles related to Mysore, want to muzzle in whatever any one one suggests, however esoteric that idea may be like the one above, which as the above poster said, will become unworkable as the new invasion of Keralites are expected, expanding this city much further.
Posting inane open letter to PM Modi, asking people to sign petitions to stop developing Chamundi Hill , projecting bus rerouting, suggestion of Devaraja Market renovated to become a Brand Bazaar Istanbul style, and now, this bus re-routing, are all sheer political gimmickry.
Optimisation of bus routes? Not going to happen, as Mysoreans ,have stopped believing in the public transport for the city decades ago. Almost every house in the city has some form of petrol-driven vehicle, as the city fell in love with them way back in late1960s. Owning a personal vehicle, if possible a four wheeler foreign brand is the aim of every Mysorean, who collectively with his fellow citizens is choking this city with pollution.
Stop wasting time of the reader with suggestions such as this, with the MGP gang ,joining as ‘me too’ to seek attention . I can’t see members of this MGP gang using buses for their transport, but instead using this suggestion for political purposes. Give this a break, when yousee the MGP gang joining the fray, as they did in: Lansdowne building and Devaraja Market reconstruction, piped gas project project to the city, saving Chamundi Hill agitation, and even commenting of the absence of sparrow, as if they have no hand in their destruction, when most members of the gang along with a massive influx of non-Mysoreans caused the destruction of the flora and fauna of this city some 40years ago, as theybuilt their nice retirement abodes in the cleared spaces. The opportunism of the MGP gang is so evident.
Next to the rly stn a bus stn is necessary like bengaluru. The jakkarayana katte to be bus stn with entrance exit on all four roads . The city bus can be in the roads n inter city bus in the center
Even in late 1960s and early 1970s, the bus station near the railway station in Bengakuru was not much used by train travellers, as they knew busues are unreliable and take a long time to go to their destination, besides getting crowded soon. They used autos.
Similar situation will become in Mysuru bus station near railway station. Bus is not the choice transport in Mysuru.
Circular routes like in Bengaluru should be introduced just passing CBS/ railway station every 10 minutes to and fro
Eg. One bus say starts from Kuvempunagar goes via Dattagalli ring road-HD kote junction- Sriramapura toll gate, NIE, Maharishi school- vidyaranya pura- railway station- hunsur road- vijayanagar. Another bus travels exactly opposite at the same time.
Frequency should be every 10 mnts.
Like wise Another route starting JP nagar- NIE, kuvempunagar- Aandholan circle- ring road- Bogadhi- jayalaxmipuram- krs road- railway stn- towards Bengaluru road exit may be planned. This will help decongestion & linking of various residential layouts.
Hope serious thought is given to it.