HOT TOPICS

SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES

April 2011 Bus Day - with CM!?

207

Bheema.Upadhyaya - 6 April, 2011 | Bangalore | BMTC | Bus | Yeddyurappa | Transportation | public transport | Bus Day

I have seen this ad in Citizen Matters. This is a call for those who want to join Bus day as volunteers. 

COMMENTS

No direct Bus from ORR Sarjapur junction to Embassy Golf Links

udith - 2 May, 2011 - 10:29

 I would very much like to use BMTC to commute to my office in Embassy Golf Links. However there is no direct bus from Outer Ring road sarjapur junction to Embassy golf links.  Getting down at Sony world junction and then board another bus is time consumming.

tamasha

murali772 - 7 April, 2011 - 04:32

It's become a full-fledged 'tamasha'.

The news reports say that the Royal Challengers' White Mischief cheer-leading squad is already in town. Since IPL is yet to start, and they are perhaps free right now, why not engage their services too?

Nice Catch on Google Transit

Vasanth - 8 April, 2011 - 03:09

SB, nice catch. I think, they need to postfix Bangalore in the search criteria.

Does that ad make sense?

dvsquare - 6 April, 2011 - 12:01

Does that really serve the purpose? Is that ad genuine and valid?

I mean, why would one like to just make the buses crowded just to accompany those people. I mean, the call should be - "All people are requested to take the bus on 8th april, as CM and his colleagues, and film stars taking the bus to their work".

Just encouraging this way will just make the buses crowded for no reason on one particular day and one particular time just to see the film stars and have a bite of those refreshments. Common man again will suffer due to lack of space in buses for wrong reasons, and the whole pupose wil be defeated and new people will not be able to get encouraged to take buses everyday from bus-day there on.

Deepak

pomp and show with CM, Bus Day lost to theatrics

silkboard - 6 April, 2011 - 15:40

Few of us got these too. 8th April, CM will take the bus. We can pick a spot from where we can wave flags to the dignitaries and VIPs taking the bus. No new innovations, no new announcements from BMTC recently, looks like pomp and show is what the CM wants.

CM would do a lot better to hold a Bus Adalat on the Bus Day. I will come cheer him, whatever day, whatever time, and wave whatever flag he would want me to.

Or give us a surprise gift on the Bus Day Mr CM, allow PPP to launch BRT or BPS in the city, or outsourcing of route operations, or feeders everywhere, or Bus shelters, or an air conditioned Atal Saarige, or a booklet with all Bus routes and timings, or a Passenger information system, or ... or ... the list is endless.

The mail from BMTC

silkboard - 6 April, 2011 - 15:43

To thos who may not have seen it, here is the text of email recd from BMTC:

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Karnataka to travel by Bus on 8th April,'11 Bus Day (Not on 4th April this time)

Bus Day is here again! Most of you are aware that BMTC is into its second year of the Bus Day campaign to encourage the use of public transport in the city of Bangalore to improve air quality, alleviate traffic congestion and enhance mobility. Every Bus Day is different, and this 8th April, 2011 Bus Day - BMTC is very proud to announce that the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Karnataka along with his cabinet colleagues will travel by Bus. That is not all - Chief Secy, GoK along with his officers/officials have also been requested to travel by Bus. Added to this list, Cricketers & Film Stars will also join the bus wagon! As ministers, officers and other celebrities take the bus, leading by example, they need to be cheered and encouraged in their effort to experience the daily commute by public transport. Therefore, it is requested to all of you citizens of Bengaluru, being a part of Citizen Groups/ Companies/ Resident Welfare Associations/ NGOs etc, to spare your precious time for accompanying BMTC officers at important nodal points in Bangalore to assist the above mentioned commuters to travel by Bus in the morning between 8.30 AM - 11AM & evening between 5 PM - 8.30 PM. Refreshments will be provided. If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the survey form below:

How it works -- BMTC, and others

xs400 - 7 April, 2011 - 05:14

Seems like no one wants to state the obvious:

 

  1. BMTC is not for the common man's benefit
  2. It is for VIPs, ("VIP" may be interpreted loosely as those in power)
  3. Routes are decided based on  if a VIP needs it, so if a favorite nephew needs to go to school at 8 AM and come back home at 4 PM, the bus will run at 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM, hence no schedules for the day. After the 4:30 PM the crew basically abandons the bus at the depot
  4. Large amount of money made due to very high ticket prices needs to be distributed, hence Volvo and AC bus stops and LED displays on buses and GPS and huge JNURM termini and (only a movie style investigation will reveal what goes on in the repair, maint and fuel and HR areas)
  5. Crew are VIPS too, (you already knew that), the Volvos are meant for racing.
  6. Other state and central govt institutes get VIP buses, you will see them more often than the crowded buses, they are fast, everybody is seated and they stop only to let off the employees of the State.
  7. When you imbibe these principles you will be allowed to run a transport service (Mr Murali?)
  8. What about IT people, you ask  - see Infosys buses? special Volvo services?
  9. Did you really think the BUS DAY would make people use buses? It is to prove that this will also be subverted for VIP use. Why is the CM wasting time going around in buses, isnt his time more valuable? No it is not, he is there only for such purposes, they will elect him or someone like him again.

 

Mr. CM, You have lost every bit of your mind

dvsquare - 7 April, 2011 - 05:38

<< Personal comment edited out >>

What is this happenning? Politicians again have hijacked a nice initiative called Bus-Day to just make themselves famous? What has happened to BMTC, why they wasting money like that? Public Transport is for public, and when VIPs and travelling one day with this kind o announcements, I think, they are just going to create problems for the common man that particular day, and any common man who think about coming out of comfort zone and give a try to bus on that particular bus-day will not have a good feedback coming out of it and we will not be able to convince him again to use the public transport and the discussion will again go in coming out of hard restrictions to not to use private vehicles.

I don't know, what we have in hand and how we can oppose it? But these needs to be opposed and rejected, they are making full-fledged tamasha out of it.

April Bus Day

ashok_n - 7 April, 2011 - 10:02

hi,

I see a lot of negativism about the fact that the CM and other politicians/film stars are going to travel by bus during this bus day. I differ from the views given. This is a good initiative by BMTC. We all complain about BMTC not giving enough to market itself or its new services. And when it does try to market its Bus-day initiative, we are running it down? Tell me honestly, how many Bangaloreans (normal junta, not the ones who read Praja or other such socially-aware people) knew of the Bus-day? I guess it would be 5% or lesser of the educated class. There were a few Bus-days last year when I was left wondering whether Bus-day happened or not (no previous day announcements, no news on the next day).

This action of the BMTC does not really help the April Bus day but will start benefitting from May onwards, when the awareness increases as a result of this tamaasha.

I always have commented about

dvsquare - 7 April, 2011 - 10:17

I always have commented about the buses is that you (BMTC) have to make buses(public transport) attractive in terms of usage by all the people (rich or poor). We all have already debated enough and concluded that BMTC is not properly taking the feedbacks coming from busdays and acting on it. We already had a lot of bus-days, the purpose of busdays was not only encourage people to use buses, but also to show BMTC the lacks of itself and how it can get positive feedbacks to make it better.

The question comes - What did BMTC did about feedbacks it got over the last bus days?  I know, this can market BMTC again, but what is the use of it next day or next month when the minimal requirement are still not fulfilled, we are still asking for last mile connectivity - good bus-shelters - buses stopping on non-stops - buses voilating traffic rules - missing bus route - need more buses - additional buses - additional conductors or etc etc.

I am not at all against marketing of the bus-day, but before that make sure that you have the stuff in order before you offer.

Deepak

Ashok, marketing is okay, but ...

silkboard - 7 April, 2011 - 14:09

Ashok, first of all, we at Praja don't need to be given lessons on negativity. Having been the initiators of the Bus Day concept (hope you are aware how Bus Day talk started back in Oct 2009), we have seen BMTC from close quarters now. YES, they need to market themselves better, and that is WHY we all pitched for the Bus Day concept. YES, CM taking the Bus will incrase awareness. But without new products or initiatives to support the marketing hype, the tide will turn negative.

  • Where is the feedback collection process? Ever tried calling their call center? Try please.
  • Except new routes here and there, where are the new initiatives to ease commuter pain?

try this on BMTC site

silkboard - 7 April, 2011 - 14:10

Want a taste of BMTC's half-ass efforts, try this as you read. go to BMTC website (bmtcinfo.com). Click on "Route Search", select Google Transit. Type from "Varthur", and to "HAL Airport". Click on "get directions". I get a google map of Chicago.

Or leave it, type "Shanthi nagar" to "Ulsoor" like the help text there says. I get a map of India showing Anantpur, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mangalore.

Is it just me, or is BMTC playing pranks on all of us!?

and BTW

silkboard - 7 April, 2011 - 14:14

In case you want to track what BMTC is upto, it is not easy. go to their website, click on tender info.

  • eTenders? empty !
  • general tenders? empty !
  • Tenderwizard? "undefined" !

Either not interested in sharing their works with the general public, or not doing anything at all (via public tenders?). Your guess will be as good as mine.

Exactly, that's what I was fearing

dvsquare - 9 April, 2011 - 16:30

This is what I was fearing, and knew that it must be something like that, because in general times also, we have seen examples of making traffic free road when VIPs ride on many roads across bangalore. Its better CM take his car, atleast lesser space will be consumed on the road. It was not BMTC marketing this bus day but it was CM's marketing. And doing this, How will CM get to know the pains of common man during everydays' travel? We know about BMTC anyways, that they didn't understood common man's pain yet after so many bus-days.

Deepak

Publicity stunt by CM, Joke on Bus Day!

kbsyed61 - 9 April, 2011 - 03:16

Certainly this is not the way to observe Bus Day. BMTC you are fine without these gimmics. BD was suppose to be bringing relief on roads, certainly not putting other users to difficulty.

Courtesy - Bangalore Mirror

"...AC bus picked him up at his official residence near Race Course, and the machinery made sure that the entire 10-km stretch was cleared of traffic and made signal-free. The CM egged the driver on — “bega hogi, bega hogi” — to get the jamboree over and done with at the earliest..."

Certainly this is not how BMTC observes Bus Day!

kbsyed61 - 9 April, 2011 - 20:07

Certainkly this not how BMTC shoudl observe Bus Day. For few celebrities, they have put scores to face the nightmare in their daily routine. If CM ride was for marketing, I would say it is too late. This should have been done year before (in 2010) not in 2011.

Read the stories from different newspapers

The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article1678768.ece

...This bus ride, meant to popularise public transport among those who use personal transport, turned out to be a nightmare for the motorists on Friday as it threw traffic out of gear at many places in the city.

The much-touted ride on the Volvo by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his Cabinet colleagues to popularise Bus Day among Bangaloreans turned into a farce with police stalling traffic at major junctions to enable a smooth ride for the Chief Minister, who seemed to be in a tearing hurry to reach Hosur in Tamil Nadu...

Deccan Chronicle

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/bengaluru/vips%E2%80%99-bus-ride-has-commuters-fuming-802

...Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Home Minister R. Ashok kept their promise of traveling by bus on Bus Day on Friday, but they didn’t anticipate the traffic snarls their decision would cause.

Traffic movement was stopped on major roads in the city, to ensure smooth, traffic-free commuting for the VVIPs traveling in buses...

Whether Roads are made traffic free for CM's ride?

kumarvjn - 9 April, 2011 - 09:01

Whether the above photo is from Bangalore?  Whether the roads are made traffic free for CM's ride? 

Were there any official cars following the bus?

If minsiters start travelling in buses, then BMTC may introduce MLA/Ministers seat in buses just like KSRTC.  These seats are not available for other passengers till last minute of the journey. 

 

@kunarvjn, pls do read the article!

kbsyed61 - 9 April, 2011 - 14:21

@kunarvjn,

Answers to all your questions are in given in the article from Bangalore mirror. Pls do read it.

The whole stretch about 10 km was cleared for the CM's Bus and also as usual security protocol, 2 police jeeps escorted it.

 

security of VIPs

rackstar - 10 April, 2011 - 08:02

Security of VVIPs is important as it is directly about law and order. Mafia or parallel govt operates mostly on assasinations and we cant afford that. Only one govt is giving enough trouble to people imagine having 2 parallel govts ruling public like what is happening in Pakistan where Benazir Bhutto and recently a central minority minister was assasinated. We have to clear roads for state CM and other Z category security VIPs.

the MOST miserable Bus Day ever?

silkboard - 11 April, 2011 - 03:30

Got first hand reports to confirm that traffic was thrown out of gear, there were "unexplained" jams on Mysore Road, Banerghatta Road. Lifestyle/Vellara area and more. Wish one could easily prove that these were due to VVIP taking a joy ride on the Bus. I think we need to invest in a radio that can tune into traffic police's network, listening in to them for a week should prove what we all suspect - more than half of "sudden" traffic jams are caused by VVIP movement.

 

I told you so!

murali772 - 12 April, 2011 - 13:33

Looks like there are not many remaining amongst the Prajagalu who believe that they can contribute to improving BMTC's operations.

So, what next? Continue to suffer in silence, stuck in traffic, listening to FM radio? Or, if you can afford it, work on the comp in air-conditioned comfort while your chaffeur negotiates his way through the traffic? And, eventually, when the traffic speed falls below say 5 KMPH, just abandon the city, and move to another? But, will it be any better?

Is there absolutely no solution in sight? Does BMTC's incapacity mean that the bus itself is a lost cause, and we will now have to look at Metro, cycling, walking, helicopter, etc?
 

Not really ...

silkboard - 12 April, 2011 - 14:57

Just that the Bus Day has been taken over by the netas. Thats what the rants on this post are mostly about. Ranting while offering to help change things is how changes happen. Doing only one of the two never helps.

100% on the Bus for my commutes for about two months now, and am absolutely happy saving 30 to 50 Rs everyday depending on what shows up first, 333P or G1 :) Have a few good stories to recount, and have many bad ones too.

I want to prefer the Bus, and I have been able to. Sitting with anyone (including BMTC officials) to bitch about public transport is a lot more fun when BMTC tickets peep n pop from your shirt pocket.

Just waiting for a little more dynamic MD at BMTC, if I can put out my crib in one simple and mild line :)

And of course, we are all waiting on you Murali for that nice report titled "Outsourcing proposals and benefits for BMTC". You will go beyond the comment-here comment-there mode on the subject some day, and when you do, few of us will join you as a co-author :)

cannot be individual centric

murali772 - 13 April, 2011 - 12:31

The earlier MD was known to be dynamic; the current KSRTC is also known to be dynamic. And, yes, they all have taken their respective organisations a few steps ahead, including the present BMTC MD. But, what they have done is woefully inadequate to meet the present day demands, arising out of which the city and citizen are paying huge prices in very many ways.

Similar was the case with telecom, banking, insurance, airlines, etc too till such time as they all opened up. And, after that, in a matter of less than a decade, the services provided have achieved close to world-class standards, if not better. And, that kind of a transformation can happen only through competition. And, without that, not the most dynamic of MDs can make much of a difference. And, even if he makes a difference, it will not last beyond his term.

These are very basic funda's, and something that must be most obvious to Prajagalu, going by the general profile of the membership. But, what is mysterious is why, in spite of it all, they choose to be content sitting on the fence.

And, SB, yours is a straight line from office to home and back. Where that's not the case, I would like to know how many of the Prajagalu are using the BMTC services, even for commuting.

because ..

silkboard - 13 April, 2011 - 12:43

Murali, your question

But, what is mysterious is why, in spite of it all, they choose to be content sitting on the fence.

Because you are simply not leading anyone forward. If the most vocal amongst the lot is not clear on what next, how to make a dent or change, can't expect any better from others, fair enough no?

fix the big circle

rackstar - 14 April, 2011 - 05:53

[Offtopic, moved here.]

Story of Bus Day volunteer

Bheema.Upadhyaya - 24 May, 2011 - 12:00

I was going through my own old blog posts to see if anything changed in the areas where I discussed. Regarding to BMTC bus day, I digged a bit. Here is the story of volunteer. Looks half done? Yes, it must be sad experience, not worthy to continue story..

Would anyone get inspired to offer volunteership, if this is the case?

PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES

Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!