Lack of planning creates chaos at Mysore bus stand

Lack of planning and coordination among officials has brought the operation of city buses back to the City Bus Stand (CBS) at K R Circle, abandoning their proposal to shift it to the two temporary stands, after causing a day of confusion and inconvenience to the commuters.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had announced plying of city buses from the two temporary bus stands, the premises of the Cauvery Area Development Authority (CADA) offices and the Palace Southern entrance, from December 1.

This was for taking up the modernisation of the CBS under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) project.

As announced, the buses began to operate from the two new places but soon after it resulted in chaos as these temporary bus stands had neither commuter facilities nor enough space to operate the buses. The inadequate space led to traffic holdups as tourist buses came soon after bringing tourists to the Palace, a major attraction that draws huge crowds every day. Even the police were helpless in avoiding the resultant traffic congestion and confusion.

Meanwhile, objections followed for deciding to operate bus services from near the Palace, without permission from the Palace Management Board.

Though letters had been addressed to it, the Board had not given consent for plying of buses from near the premier heritage structure.

Realising the ill-planned measure, the authorities soon after decided to shift the operations of the city services back to the CBS, taking the commuters unawares. Consequently, commuters who went to the temporary bus stands had to walk again to the CBS.

According to the KSRTC authorities, operation of city services will continue at CBS for 15 more days and in meanwhile better alternative place would be located for shifting it.