The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Tamil Nadu-bound passengers find it tough to locate bus bay

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 21, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Tamil Nadu-bound passengers find it tough to locate bus bay

Raghava M.

Lack of proper signboards causing inconvenience to people

TOUGH TO REACH: A view of Platform no. 25 at the Kempe Gowda Bus Station in Bangalore, where inter-State buses arrive and depart. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: It was on Wednesday that six members of Madhavan's family were on their way to Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. They had made reservation for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus leaving from platform no. 25 of the Kempe Gowda Bus Station at 9.15 p.m. Buses bound or operated by the transport corporations of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry leave from there.

Being new to the location of platforms, Mr. Madhavan, a businessman, came with his family members to the bus terminus half an hour before the scheduled time of departure. At the entrance, he saw a board showing directions to reach the platforms.

He followed the instructions and reached platform 19. Then he found platform 24. Mr. Madhavan rushed to the official at KSRTC enquiry counter, who told him to go straight from the alighting platform.

Carrying the heavy luggage, he passed through a maze of buses and found his bus in a corner of an open place along with the buses going to Pondicherry and Madurai. He was just in time before the scheduled departure.

But what he found from the conductor of the bus was that there were several people with reservation tickets who were yet to locate the bus. The conductor had to delay the departure of the bus by 20 minutes because of this.

The problems faced by the Cuddalore bus passengers are common for those catching buses to Salem, Thiruvannamali, Pondicherry, Villupuram, Hosur, Kumbakonam, Neyveli, Kodaikanal, and Madurai. This is because there are no boards to indicate the location of platform 25, which is just an open place next to the entrance from Shantala Circle. This is the platform from where buses to most of the places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala depart.

When contacted, KSRTC General Manager (Traffic) K.A. Rajkumar said there was some inconvenience to passengers because of the location of departure bays for Tamil Nadu-bound buses.

He said the situation should improve once the bus station is decongested following the shifting of several scheduled to the Mysore Road Satellite Terminal in a phased manner.

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