There has been a lot of discussion in the media about the arbitrary and ill thought-out decision of the district administration to shift the city bus stand to the inter-city bus stand building. This discussion has mostly limited itself to what a waste of money this move will entail, since the city bus stand was renovated recently at a huge cost of Rs. 14 crores. Keeping aside this angle, let us look at the questions of convenience and utility to the public.
The central business district (CBD) of Mysore city extends roughly from City Corporation building on the south to Medical College in the north, suburban bus stand in the east to Narayana Shastri road in the west. It contains shops of all descriptions as well as Devaraja market and the meat market. Since the present city bus stand is at the centre of this area, it provides the best access to the public to the CBD. Moving it to the inter-city bus stand building (which is on the eastern edge of the CBD) and prohibiting bus traffic on Sayyaji Rao road as has been proposed by the administration will make it very difficult for the public to access the CBD via bus travel. When every other country in the world is discouraging personal vehicles and encouraging public transportation because of economic and environmental considerations, it is surprising that the local administration is doing the exact opposite by proposing to build multi-storied parking lots next to the palace (to help private vehicles) and make bus travel expensive and inconvenient. This policy should be reversed and the CBD made easily accessible to the public travelling by bus. So if moving the present city bus stand becomes inevitable for some reason or the other, buses must be allowed to ply on major roads within the CBD to provide this access.
The city bus stand needs to be located conveniently and also designed properly to provide utility to the public. The present city bus stand renovation, despite its enormous price tag of Rs. 14 crores falls short in this respect. Some obvious problems with it are:
1. The flooring is very slippery. Such a flooring should not be used in any public building. When wet, it could be even more slippery. This makes it dangerous even for able-bodied people and could be life-threatening to the elderly and the physically weak.
2. The floor appears to be level and so water may not drain easily. This is again a no-no for any public building.
3. Subways from platform to platform is impractical for Mysore at the present time. When the next platform is 20 feet away, people are not likely to walk 50 feet to the subway, climb down 15 feet, walk to the next stairs, climb up 15 feet and walk 50 more feet to reach their destination. The aged and the disabled can not do it at all. So most people are just ignoring the subway and walking across the bus paths.
Of course, crossing the bus path is risky. But when pedestrian discipline is not being enforced anywhere in Mysore, it seems unrealistic to expect it at the bus stand. The floors of the subways are also unacceptably slippery. Water drainage can be a problem.
4. Water dispensers which have been installed on each platform are badly designed and as a result unhygienic. They come with a steel tumbler attached to a chain. The chain is so short that the tumbler can not be raised to the mouth of an average-sized human. This is poor design indeed.
The tumbler is very often left on the water drain which makes drinking from it disgusting. It is inexplicable why they do not provide water fountains (found in most foreign countries) which are very hygienic and convenient.
5. The waste bins provided do not have lids and so are repulsive. One could have provided waste bins with foot-operated lids. One should also provide biodegradable plastic liner bags for the bins so that they can be tied up and disposed of without soiling the bins themselves.
6. The concrete finishing for the bus paths is extremely smooth and it appears that many people slip and fall every day walking across the bus paths, especially near the exit to Sayyaji Rao road where the paths have a steep gradient.
It is not clear why the bus paths were made so smooth. If they get wet, they will become even more slippery, especially if some oil leaks from the buses. Then, buses and not just people might start skidding!
7. The drainage for the bus paths is also far from satisfactory. Only a few drains are provided and even they are blocked by garbage.
It is not obvious how these drains can be cleared of the garbage.
So it seems very likely that during the rainy season, the bus stand will be water logged.
8. The roofs over passengers waiting for buses will protect them from rain only if the rain is falling straight down.
9. The bus shelter platforms have a bevelled edge on which many people lose their footing.
10. The route charts are not designed well. The same route is shown for all the buses on one platform.
This is misleading to say the least. One should also have a master map which shows all the bus routes to help people to find which route to take to wherever they are going.
Vishwas Krishna, member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat
Vishwas Krishna, member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat