Mysore Grahakara Parishat, taking note of the importance of city bus services to the city made an exception by conducting its Monthly Public Meeting on this issue for the second time within a span of ten months. Introducing the topic president stated that an efficient and economical public transport system of a city is a precondition of its economic growth. A failed public transport results in unwieldy growth of traffic due to dependence on private transport vehicles. The public participated in large number and KSRTC was represented by Sri.Dundu Madaiah, DTO, and Sri.Maqsood Ahmed, Manager of City Depot-1.
Public posed their grievances ranging from rude behavior of bus conductors, rash driving by the drivers, not stopping of the buses at the scheduled stops, improper bus shelters, inadequate bus services in the areas like Ramakrishna Nagar, Dattagalli, Udayagiri, Siddardhanagar, lack of commuter facilities in Kuvempu Nagar bus station, lack of direct bus connectivity from areas located at long distances like Ramakrishna Nagar with the city railway station, inadequate embarking and disembarking time/space at the railway station bus stops, non functioning of ITS Boards at the rural bus terminals, to lack of proper assessment of commuter needs in route and schedule planning of bus services in the city. The public also demanded rationalization of some routes and addition of some new routes. They also demanded that like in Bengaluru City Bus Services in Mysore also the Senior Citizens should be given concession in the Volvo A/C buses. There was also suggestion that KSRTC should accept Senior Citizen ID from respective agencies in this regards instead demanding ID issued by it.
Maqsood Ahmed provided answers to public queries and also assured that necessary steps will be taken to overcome some of the human resource related problems. He assured the participants that KSRTC is constantly keeping track of improper behavior of its employees and in many cases deducting the fines imposed by the Police department for violation of traffic regulations from the pay of the drivers. It has also been taking disciplinary steps against conductors behaving rudely with the commuters. The movement of buses is constantly monitored on ITS platform to ensure that the drivers stick to the timings as per the schedules.
Both Maqsood Ahmed and Dundu Madaiah gave an overall picture of present city bus service structure and also explained that Mysore is beneficiary of JnNURM Phase I in terms of infrastructural facilities such as Bus Stations, Depots, new buses, Intelligent Transport System [ITS] and the training of both managerial and other human resources.
Maqsood Ahmed said that at present only 17 per cent of the public in the city is covered by the city bus services where as 35 per cent of the public own two wheelers. World Bank has provided a Rs.4 Crores study of Public Outreach Programme. Comprehensive Study of Operational Analysis [CSOA] during the past 6-7 months has helped in the implementation of GPS and Alert System, ITS platform based monitoring of schedules which has given the Corporation an additional commuters to the extent of 20 lakh during the month of November, 2014. Efforts are being made to continue this process to cover more commuters. The target is to cover 35-40 per cent of the public by the city bus transport services during next 5-6 years.
He also stated that the present Hub-Wheel structure of the bus services in the city is causing a lot of wastage in the usage of resources of the corporation and also leading to unnecessary traffic density in the city centre apart from depriving the public of an efficient bus service system. A recommendation has been made to the higher authorities to change this City Bus Stand centric Hub-Wheel structure to more commuter centric structure and the decision is awaited. The Corporation is also in dialogue with the South Western Railway to provide a plot of about 2-3 acres so that an exclusive bus stand can be put up exclusively for providing bus services to the railway passengers. On the whole they assured that with the addition of another 120 buses [of which 41 will be as replacement of inefficient Marcopolo buses] and rationalization of routes the city is poised for better commuter centric bus services in the city.
Parishat Executive Committee members Ms.Shobhana, Mr.Sheshadri, Maj.Gen.Vombatkere, Mr.Srinath,Dr.Bhamy Shenoy, and members Ms.Asha Vombatkere; , Smt Suman Sheno; Sri.P.M.Bhat, Sri.Dwarakanath Narayan, Sri.Ramanath, Dr..Jayaram, Dr.Rajan, Sri.Sowcar, President, Senior Citizen Forum Sri.B.V.Doreswamy, were present.
R Chandra Prakash