Optimisation of city bus routes need of the hour

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

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