By S.B. Devaraj
The once good looking bus shelters which were built at specific spots along city bus routes are now in such a bad shape that they are not only failing to provide shelter to the commuters but are also spoiling the beauty of the city because of their poor or lack of maintenance.
These bus shelters, which provided good protection from rain and sun to commuters for a few years and looked attractive with beautiful advertisements, have now become eyesores. The roof of many shelters look vulnerable and may fall down anytime, advertisement boards have gone haywire, tubelights and dangling electrical wires present a scary sight at many places, railing are getting rusted and the benches provided for commuters to sit are also not in good shape either.
Bus shelters near Government Ayurveda Hospital Circle on Sayyaji Rao Road, Irwin Road, near V.V. Puram Police Station on Vontikoppal Temple Road, KRS Road opposite Venkataramanaswamy Temple, Dasappa Circle near Mandovi Motors, near Saraswathipuram Fire Brigade, near B.M. Hospital, Highway Circle and many other shelters also unveil ugliness of one form or the other. Except for some bus shelters which are built recently under the grants from Legislators and MP, most of them have become useless. Lack of proper hygiene in these shelters has forced commuters to stand outside in hot sun and wait for buses.
Reasons for poor maintenance
Based on the demands of KSRTC officials, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) provided bus shelters for commuters but it is not possible for the City Corporation to construct and maintain hundreds of bus shelters. Because of this, the MCC, in association with certain advertising agencies, built bus shelters and after few years of maintenance by the agencies they are handed over to the MCC.
Thereafter, lack of proper maintenance result in the utter bad state of the bus shelters which continue till arrangements are made to repair them or entering into fresh agreement with some other advertising agency. Same thing applies to the shelters built by Legislators and MP.
Slow Implementation
It is learnt that KSRTC officials had given a list of the required bus shelters along the city bus routes to the MCC and following this, officials of KSRTC, Police Department and MCC jointly inspected the locations and construction of 54 bus shelters at various locations, with modern design were approved at the MCC Council meeting. Based on the locations suggested by the public and local Corporators, approval for another 15 bus shelters was obtained from the Council and tenders were invited for the construction of a total 69 bus shelters. Work order has been issued for the construction to Bangaluru-based OOH Advertising Services Pvt. Ltd. under Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) system.
Of these, work order for the construction of 35 bus shelters with modern design at KEB Circle in Dattagalli, Netaji Circle, Triveni Circle in Dattagalli 3rd Stage, Kalyana Mantap in Gokulam, Maharani’s College on JLB Road, Mandovi Motors on KRS Road, Corner House at Kuvempunagar, Kamakshi Hospital, Ballal Circle, near Jayanagar Railway Under-Bridge, Ramaswamy Circle, RTO (West) Circle, Jayanagar, Highway Circle, one each near Shubhodini Choultry and opposite the burial grounds near CITB choultry, Sub-Urban Bus Stand, Hardinge Circle, near Mysuru University Vice-Chancellor’s residence on JLB Road, Siddappa Square, Agrahara Circle and 2 each near Railway Station and Akashavani Circle in Yadavagiri was issued about a year ago to OOH Advertising Services and the construction work is in progress at Jayanagar. The work of other bus shelters will commence only after the Jayanagar bus shelter is approved by the City Corporation.
Conditions imposed
Shelters should be constructed by the agency, manage it for 5 years and hand over the bus shelters in good condition to the MCC. The bus shelters should be constructed 3 ft. away from footpath and the concerned agency will be solely responsible for any accident, mishap, injuries and loss of life during the maintenance period.
No compensation is provided if the shelter is demolished because of road widening or for any other reason. Shelter should be constructed within 90 days of obtaining plan and design approval and thereafter maintain the same till the period mentioned in the tender. Prior to this, getting NOC from DCP (Crime and Traffic) is made mandatory. Forty percent of space in the bus shelter should be provided for giving information to the public including 4×5 ft. space indicated by KSRTC. These conditions could be the reason for the slow progress of the project.
Whatever is the reason, people of Mysuru want to see these bus shelters with the proposed modern design at the earliest. If it is going to be a financial burden to the MCC, the proposed project should be implemented at the earliest on BOOT basis. MCC Commissioner and people’s representatives need to be proactive in the implementation of the bus shelter project.
Meanwhile, Mahesh, MCC Executive Engineer, has disclosed that the Corporation has issued work order on BOOT basis to construct bus shelters to OOH Advertisers Pvt. Ltd. after inspecting the locations of these shelters. Model bus shelter is almost complete in Jayanagar and we have to examine whether the rules and conditions stated in the work order are followed. It is only after that, the remaining construction works will start at other places also, he added. “We have information about old and spoilt bus shelters and they have also been included in the new project list,” Mahesh added.
If one of certain age looked back the bus shelters history from 1950, one will find that bus shelters were not good then either, but the eye sores of advertisements were absent in those days. But even then, within 5 years of independence, one could see those bus shelters were used by homeless and beggars. Mysoreans then did not use the buses much, as any part of the city, then compact with very manageable population, hence even the tip of Yadavagiri then new extension growing at a slow pace, could be reachable with a bicycle, or an hour’s gentle walk on footpaths. Mysuru was indeed a beautiful city in 1950s. These days of car culture, and personal vehicles of sorts, no wonder the bus shelters are not the priority, as buses are not preferred mode of transport within this massively expanded these days.
The author seems to have picked a topic of no interest for car-loving Mysoreans for the sake of writing an article and getting his fee!
If one of certain age looked back the bus shelters history from 1950, one will find that bus shelters were not good then either, but the eye sores of advertisements were absent in those days. But even then, within 5 years of independence, one could see those bus shelters were used by homeless and beggars. Mysoreans then did not use the buses much, as any part of the city, then compact with very manageable population, hence even the tip of Yadavagiri then new extension growing at a slow pace, could be reachable with a bicycle, or an hour’s gentle walk on footpaths. Mysuru was indeed a beautiful city in 1950s. These days of car culture, and personal vehicles of sorts, no wonder the bus shelters are not the priority, as buses are not preferred mode of transport within this massively expanded these days.
The author seems to have picked a topic of no interest for car-loving Mysoreans for the sake of writing an article and getting his fee!