BMTC (Dis)connective route

179

srinirao - 28 August, 2012 | Bangalore | Bangalore | Bangalore | BMTC | Bus | Bus | Bus | Connectivity | Local Shuttles | Feeder

To the BMTC's Public grevience cell, Bangalore.

Dear Sir,

Daily i have to commute to work from Hebbal Kempapura (Diary Gate stop, Esteem Mall) to Marath Halli bridge using BMTC buses. There are plenty of good bus facility available at Hebbal Ring Road to Marath Halli, Thanks to BMTC for providing good number of buses.

 

I find issues with respect to connectivity and public security

1. My self and many other people who are commuting to work from Yelahanka, Sahakara Nagara, Esteem Mall, Kodige Halli, etc. don't have direct connectivity to Hebbal Ring Road stop. We have to come to Esteem Mall by bus and walk about 1km to reach the Hebbal Ring Road stop or pay hefty charges to Auto rickshaw guys who heed to improper charges during late hours. During night it creates all the more difficult because this stretch is poorly lit and it is not safe to walk for even men.  My request to BMTC authority is to fill the gap of connectivity of 1km stretch between Hebbal Ring Road and Esteem Mall stops.
Some buses(Not every bus) should be allowed to terminate(and start) at Kodige Halli cross Bus stop instead of terminating(and starting) at Hebbal Ring Road stop itself.

2. I find during peak hours, there are many Volvo buses but from Hebbal Ring Road stop to Marath halli. But there are less number of normal fair buses. This again causes pain to pocket as we have to pay more for commuting.

Please check the attached file to review the bus routes.The blue line indicates lack of BMTC connectivity. There are many IT and Business parks along the Outer Ring Road near Marath halli/Kadu beesana Halli. If this connectivity is improved, many people will be helped, who commute daily from Yelahanka and surrounding areas to Marath Halli/Kadubeesana Halli, Manyata techparks.

regards,
Srinivas Rao M
 


COMMENTS

@murali sir, Please convey

srinirao - 9 September, 2012 - 19:05

@murali sir,

Please convey this disconnective route problem at your next TAC meeting along with routemap details. I am sure they will understand lack of facility for the good volumes of BMTC commuters. I will be greatful if you can also let us know about the outcome of this discussion.

regards,
Srinivas

Nayandahalli is a very good

idontspam - 13 September, 2012 - 06:43

Nayandahalli is a very good example. I can gaurantee you there will be no ped facilities to cross anywhere, it will be just like Domlur. I think skywalks connecting the metro with every other direction is possible just as well as surface level. Its important to get the design with elevation so we can look at all options. We can take the proposal to BDA/BBMP/DULT.

@ Srinivas - I am on the Traffic Advisory Committee, convened by the Addl Commr, Traffic, which meets every 3rd Saturday of alternate months, and I am already taking up these matters there. You and other bus users could, in addition, pursue these matters through ORRCA, ELCIA, etc.

And, what do you think of the sky-walk solutions (check again, in the post above)? If you more people think they make sense, we can perhaps push the powers that be into providing them, may be at all fly-over junctions, across the city.

I am also facing the same problems while travelling from Yelahanka to anywhere touching the Ring Road. I have also written many complaints regarding this in many newspapers and websites, but nothing much has been done.

The new Bus Service BC-9 has a very poor service, maybe hourly or rarer. One cannot say when the bus will arrive.

The same is said about 500-AA which ply between Yelahanka New Town and Marathahalli, again extremely rare service.

I would rather suggest that they introduce an exclusive bus service from Yelahanka to Hebbal Ring Road and back to Yelahanka, similar to G-9. Yes, BMTC should stop thinking about providing buses only to Majestic and City Market, and they should provide some variations in routes as well. If 3-4 buses are dedicated to this route at a time. The benefits of this are as under.

  1. Good frequency, a bus every 15 minutes from Yelahanka to Hebbal Ring Road and back.
  2. Additional connectivity to Bus-starved residents of Yelahanka.
  3. Reduce the risk of scores of people being run over by trains.
  4. Save time.

Well, that is also a point to ponder. Volvo buses are extremely rare in Yelahanka, and those operating there are meant only for Aircraft Passengers, not for General Public. If Volvo buses are introduced in Yelahanka for non-airport public, then people who can afford it can buy daily Volvo passes, and utilize the same for more than one Volvo buses as well; since daily Volvo bus passes are available only inside Volvo buses.

Flyovers while creating a smooth ride for private vehicles complicates changing of buses for Bus Passengers. Same problem exists near Jayadeva Hospital, Silkboard, Marathalli Bridge etc.

Although there is good frequency of Big 10s on roads like Bellary Road and Big Circle on ORR, due to flyovers, interchange becomes a problem. 

sky-walks - the answer?

murali772 - 5 September, 2012 - 16:35

Perhaps Mumbai type sky-walks like the ones suggested here for Silk-Board jn, and here for Domlur-IRR jn, could provide the answer.

Hi,

Just wanted to know such a fruiteful greviences are being shared on these boards, does any civic authorities reading these messages on boards (such as BMTC, BESCOM, BWSSB, BDA, etc.,) ?

Once this regular bus service is implemented, on a pilot basis, i am sure the BMTC will see lot of demand for this (dis) connective route. More over as said earlier, it is not safe to walk on this stretch after 7PM in the evening.

Also request the admin/moderator to move this thread to the right forum (if required) so that attention to this thread is well guarded.

regards,
Srinivas.

 

 

skywalks makes a lot of sense

dvsquare - 6 September, 2012 - 05:09

@murali sir,

Skywalks makes a lot of sense, if they are there, people will have a way to walk without being risking their life, without being victim of sudden fatal injury because of broken footpath etc etc.

Also, they will have a shade for that 500-1000 meters range and will be a good incentive for changing the buses from one stop to other.

I feel, having mumbai kinds of skywalks makes a lot of sense, in current situation, but that doesn't mean, authorities can do away with footpath on either sides of the road, that has to be the first priority while doing any road work.

Deepak

@Murali Sir, Please take up Skywalks

Vasanth - 7 September, 2012 - 08:25

Murali Sir,

Skywalk makes lot of sense. Under pass is also OK, but looking at our underpasses constructed, skywalks makes lot of sense.

We need them in these places where people change buses:

1. Hudson / Corporation Circle

2. Jayadeva

3. Around Hebbal Flyover

4. Silkboard

5. Marathalli Bridge

6. Nayandahalli ORR - Mysore Road Junction

7. In front of Mysore Satellite Bus Stand, various places on the so far identified as Big 10 Roads and ORR which are eventually going to be signal free.

8. A single skywalk connecting Majestic bus stand skywalk to Railway station skywalk to avoid multiple step down and step up as well as the dirty underpass in City Railway Station.

SKY Walk or Not SkyWalks

srinirao - 7 September, 2012 - 09:34

@murali sir

Good to know the important people like you, who are in the advisory boards of civic authorities are reading this thread.

With regard to Skywalks, i feel it is suitable at places where we have to cross a big road or a junction where heavy traffic flows. It is very much required to prevent pedestrians from accidents at these zones. 

But the problem i am talking about is for covering a stretch of about 1km (Please refer to route highlighted in Blue colour in the map) . It may not be appropriate to solve this with Skywalks. It can only be done through BMTC extending its regular  service to patch this disconnective stretch.  This stretch becomes dangerously dark(not having enough street lights) at night. If the same buses which ply to ring road is continued till just the next stop at Esteem Mall, it will be a great help.

Sir, Please do the needful, as the earlier messages posted by members have already posted in various news papers under greviences columns. It has not resulted in any action. I think you are the one who can make a difference to many commuters like us.

Thanks for reading,

Srinivas

naanu, bari obba PRAJA

murali772 - 7 September, 2012 - 12:00

@ Srinivas - I am a founder member of PRAJA, and currently the President of PRAJA-RAAG (Research, Analysis, Advocacy Group - furthering on the discussions at ‘praja.in’) - for more on what we are, compared to other sies, civil society groups, etc, check here).

It's partly because of my PRAJA activities that I was invited onto the TAC. I have now attended some four of the TAC's bi-monthly (once in two months) meetings, and most of the happenings there I have posted on PRAJA. The TAC is convened by Dr Saleem, the Addl Commissioner, Traffic, and generally chaired by the Police Commissioner himself. Now, since smooth flow of traffic requires support from all the other major 'stake-holders' (in my opinion, very few of the representatives of these organisations act in ways becoming of a person who has a stake in the city, and consequently, I don't quite agree with the term being applied to the organisations; citizens are the real stake-holders) in the city also, Dr Saleem has managed to get all of them to send their representatives for the meetings too. But, it is rarely even the second rung officials attending, and consequently, implementations are slow in delivery, the biggest culprit here being the BBMP. But, for all its limitations, this is the only city-wide platform, constituting of all the stake-holders, that is making an attempt at citizen consultations, for which the credit should obviously go to Dr Saleem.

BESCOM, MD, Mr Manivannan (who blogs openly on PRAJA) perhaps took the lead; but, that is limited to power matters alone. Also, Dr Saleem's predecessor, Mr Praveen Sood was the first to bring a government organisation onto 'facebook'.

Now, while I can make suggestions at the TAC meetings, there are no guarantees they will be accepted.

My suggestions for bus services are as per the schematic accessible here, and a typical commute using public transport is detailed here. While this could entail an extra trip (switch from one bus to another) for the commuter, it will ensure a much faster commute overall. The switch-over needs to be facilitated, like by having the Mumbai type sky-walks, apart from good bus shelters (diverting the bus off a route, for the convenience of a few, will invariably be at the cost of the majority, and as such, avoidable). This was more or less what Dr Ashwin Mahesh had in mind when he facilitated the Big-10 concept. He was eventually hoping to get all parallel routings merged with the Big-10 routings in order to increase the frequency of operations. And, for high frequency feeder services, the inevitable answer, according to me, is private participation. If you see reason behind that argument, perhaps you would like to sign this petition?

The same problem is present

raghunandan85 - 10 September, 2012 - 16:57

The same problem is present for people traveling from the section of Bellary road, south of Hebbal junction, to offices on ORR. This section is made worse by the need to walk across a railway line, without foot overbridge, the market and open toilets.

Because of the railway line I dont think there can be bus service like in the northern section of Hebbal. Not sure what might be a good solution.

In short there is a big disconnect between North-South bound public commuting traffic and East - West bound public commuting traffics at Hebbal Ring Road junction. Its importance has to be realized by the public transport planners, considering the fact that there are *many* companies in Outer Ring Road stretch. This forces the common man to switch to private transports.

ORR Flyovers - Pain for Commuters

Naveen - 13 September, 2012 - 05:49

Mr Srinivas Rao & others,

Indeed this is a real problem for bus commuters & I don't think skywalks can solve problems in a majority of cases - what if the distances are large (over 500m or close to 1 km or more) ? What about the inconvenience of ascending & descending for older people & women /children ?

Skywalks may have been built in Mumbai since there really is no other choice when you have millions upon millions of commuters filling in like sardines into hundreds of trains - there is bound to be severe hardships for all commuters, but I don't believe Bangalore must be similar.

In my opinion, the answer to this is to push BDA /BBMP into creating slip lanes for use by buses to access the intersection points on ground level & have bus stops there. Pedestrian crossings with traffic calming measures will also be necessary to ensure safety at street /lane crossings - if vehicles are slowed down due to pedestrian crossings, so be it.

Clearly, not enough thought or planning has gone into commuter conveniences when designing these monstrous structures since they seem to have planned it purely with the objective of speedy vehicle movements only.

The new flyovers being built at Agara, Iblur, Bellandur, Devarabeesanahalli, Kadubeesanahalli, Hennur rd jn, etc are better in that there are surface lanes & buses can stop at the intersection on ground level whilst other vehicles use the jump ramps a level above.

See this new gargantuan structure coming up at Nayandahalli - pedestrian amenities seem completely absent whilst there are multiple tiers of ramps for vehicles. There is also an elevated Metro station coming up at this junction. How are people to change over without risks or undue inconveniences ?

I don't think TAC or BMTC can do much to address these deficiencies. It might be best to write a letter to Commissioner, Dept of Urban Land Transport (DULT) with copy to BBMP /BDA, etc. & follow it up - I think we need to make a start somewhere & push for this. I'm willing to join you in this, along with any others that may support the effort.

IDS /Vasanth /Pranav - can we move on this thro' DULT ?

more in the nature of a corrective step

murali772 - 14 September, 2012 - 12:42

Deepak has already stated (on 6th Sept - check above) that 'I feel, having mumbai kinds of skywalks makes a lot of sense, in current situation, but that doesn't mean, authorities can do away with footpath on either sides of the road, that has to be the first priority while doing any road work', and I agree with him totally, there.

The Mumbai type sky-walk has been offered as a solution, where the fly-overs have already been built without taking into consideration the needs of pedestrians and bus users.

There is absolutely no gainsaying the fact that proper facilities for pedestrians and bus users need to be planned as part of the fly-over design itself. If anyone can come up with suitable designs, I expect CiSTUP will be happy to take it forward with the government agencies executing the job.

And, as for crowds, if you go to K R puram, Madiwala, or Domlur, between 9 & 10 AM on any working day, you'll notice that we are fast catching up with Mumbai.

I am daily travelling from

Ramaprasad_A - 30 September, 2012 - 05:34

I am daily travelling from Kendriaya vihar, Yelahanka to Mindtree office in Mysore road and Whitefield office. Its really suffer from this disconnectvity I have to take bus from Yelahanaka, Kogilu cross to Esteem mall by catching Mejestic bus/Market/Shivaji nagar bus then walk for 20 minutes (~1.5KM on either side) to get bus towards my destination. Even same while I am coming back, if it is night it is even difficult to walk here. There are so many people like who daily walks to catch the connecting bus.

 

Even I gave several complaints to BMTC about this dis connectivity, but no one bothers till now.

I don’t know whom to complain now... :(

 

Regards

Ramaprasad A

there's no other way

murali772 - 3 October, 2012 - 10:24

Perhaps, it is time people gave up complaining, particularly to the types who just can't bother with responding to them, and started demanding that they step aside and allowed others to do the job they just can't get around to doing properly, while enjoying a monopoly on top of it all. Check this.

BMTC is not on Twitter

srinirao - 13 June, 2015 - 09:38

Thanks Murali, I did tweet to them. I noticed that your tweet has not reached BMTC. They are not on Twitter not sure if this works out.
I have registered this issue on their website.
I request everyone who is AFFECTED because of this Disconnect route issues and reading this to raise the similar grevience on BMTC website. Unless we affected raise our voice, this long pending issues will not get solved.

Please goto link and lodge a complaint:
https://www.mybmtc.com/customer-grievance

Please also send emails to email id mentioned in
https://www.mybmtc.com/bmtc-contactus

Please also Tweet to the right stake holders..

 

 

Hi All and @murali sir,

Is this thread still alive ??

It has been more than two years since the start of this grevience topic, No action has happened from BMTC in this regard. Please convey this disconnective route problem on priority. I am sure they will understand lack of facility for the good volumes of BMTC commuters.

Please review the connectivity issues at Hebbal it has been long pending since long. There are many IT and Business parks along the Outer Ring Road near Marath halli/Kadu beesana Halli. If this connectivity is improved, many people will be helped, who commute daily from Yelahanka and surrounding areas to Marath Halli/Kadubeesana Halli, Manyata techparks

Suggestion:

It would be good if all the buses that go above Hebbal Fly over, to and from Yelahanka (and surrounding areas), be made to go below the flyover at stop at Ring Road stop, so that we can get down and catch our buses. 

I will be greatful if you can also let us know about the outcome of this discussion.

regards,
Srinivas

try to connect thro twitter

murali772 - 8 June, 2015 - 14:07

@Srinivas

Have sent out a twitter message reading as below:

AddlCPTraffic @CPBlr request go thro' the debate on BMTC commuter issues at Hebbal, and try ameliorating them - http://praja.in/hi/node/4909#comment-37171

May be you could re-tweet my tweet. Bangalore Police has now earned a reputation for communicating through social media (particularly twitter), and there's a good chance they will read the tweets (and the linked posts). And, more the number of re-tweets, the better the chances of a read, as well as a response/ action.

Likewise, you could post on Traffic Police facebook wall/ timeline too (Only problem here is they may remove them).

I am more and more using this route to reach out to the powers that be - ie have the debate on PRAJA (which undoubtedly has its merits), and tweet the link to the concerned officials.

Leave alone being on twitter, facebook, etc, BMTC's web-site does not even provide the contact particulars of the MD. Either that's all they care, or the incumbent has decided that there's no changing the ways of the (dis)organisation.

Once again, clearly brings out the need to open up the sector for effective competition from private players (check here), which alone can change its ways.

HI,

I am trying to figure what made  BMTC to move the bus stop to a Kilometer further. Now there is no bus stop for Mekhri Circle. instead we have to walk close to a kilometer from actual mekhri circle towards to Ganganagar to actually catch the bus. Just imagine the plight of old people, people carrying children and luggages and ofcourse not to forget rainy day situation and night time walking crimes which pedestrians have to encounter

Neither did BMTC call for review of this change nor the traffic department. It simply relocates its bus stops at its will. As can be seen in following snapshot, this particular movement has costed the pedestrians to walk for additional 623 meters from Mekhri circle.

Just imagine if i don't get a direct bus to Yelahanka from Shivaji nagar, Then you will get down at Mekhri circle stop to catch the connecting Yelahanka bus. Now they people would not know they will be punished by this extra walking required to catch bus. 

 

BMTC neither has a customer support nor presence in social media to listen to such public greviences and take corrective actions. Never bothered to atlease provide connectivity to routes. Instead they increase disconnectivity by such changes.

 

Request the public grevience officer to address these concerns and make public friendly 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

I had personnaly discussed and sent email to MD Ekrup Kaur  about the BMTC buses going belwo flyover while coming from Yelahanka at Hebbal.

She had asked their operation Manager to look into that and  I got mail that it has  been implemented.

Few months back,  they had put  up board to divert all  BMTC buses below flyover at Hebbal bit after one month, its back to normal.

Now also,  when flyover  is jammed with traffic,  many BMTC drivers go below flyover  and climb the Hebbal flyover.  This is much better for drivers as  they get  easy climb so that they can drive smoothly.

I dont know why BMTC is not enforcing this going below flyover.

 

To over come the bus stop shifting ,  traffic police should allow BMTC buses to play above under pass while coming from Windsoor manor towards Hebbal  and buses can get priority signal  to cross the road.

Regarding Hebbal,

i never noticed a change/modification in route either way below flyover. Even when there are busy traffic above flyover, we are at the mercy of signal below flyover to get a stop there. Driver will not stop there, saying it is not a regular stop. Only thing i notice there is a U turn made for buses to avoid flyover circle, which some rare buses plying to Yelahanka use.  But this cannot be considered as a solution to the topic under discussion. 

@Sanjeev, Thanks for the initiative taken by sending email.

@Sanjeev, @Murli Sir, Please PM me the email id of Ekrup Kaur and other BMTC stake holders, Let's take this issue forward and try to get some sensible solution. 

I tweeted yesterday too, response awaited, let's see.

@AddlCPTraffic @CPBlr request go thro' the debate on BMTC commuter issues at Mekhri Circle, and try resolving them - http://praja.in/en/gyan/bmtc-disconnective-route#comment-37585
 

 

Regarding Mekhri Circle,

Instead of shifting the bus stop, They should have constructed  a similar bus stop bay at the same location, at the place where underpass ends. Calling a Ganganagar bus stop as Mekhri Circle bus stop is a pure joke. They should consider providing convenience to bus users not punishing them. 


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