BIG PLANS: BMTC plans to aggressively convince school authorities about the benefits of the Safe Road to School scheme. — Photo: K.Gopinathan

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), one of the stakeholders in the Safe Road to School programme, has decided to approach each and every school to urge the authorities to join the initiative.

"The number of schools and buses hired to them under the scheme has not increased when this academic year began. However, we intend to move aggressively to convince school authorities about the benefits of the scheme," said Upendra Tripathy, Managing Director, BMTC.

The corporation offers its buses at subsidised contractual rates to schools to ferry children from home to school and back. More than 10 schools have availed themselves of the facility and hired over 200 buses. The traffic police have convinced the school authorities concerned to allow BMTC buses to enter their premises to drop and pick up children, thus ensuring safety of children at school premises.

Hiring of the buses at off-peak hours does not burden the Corporation much, Mr. Tripathy told The Hindu . "We will also talk to parents to impress upon them about the facility, its benefits and less risk involved," he said.

The scheme, launched in 2005 when the academic year began, however, did not make much headway mainly because of the apprehension among parents about the safety of their children. However, little do the parents know that hardly any BMTC bus carrying students met with an accident. Besides, children in such hired buses are placed comfortably with no overcrowding and each child getting a seat. With the introduction of buses with pneumatic doors, where the driver controls the doors, enhanced safety is offered to the children.

Alternatives

Those who do not wish to take buses can, however, think of the alternatives. Many parents have discovered a more practical way of solving the problem associated with commuting between their residence and schools of their wards. They would rent a house near the school of their choice.

A classic example is a well-known private school on Ullalu Main Road, which is also a part of Safe Road to Schools programme. Many parents, who own houses in the central parts of the city, including Vijayanagar, Basavanagudi and the like, have taken houses on rent in adjoining layouts just because they have admitted their wards in the private school. A particular private layout has grown to become fully developed because of this school as many site owners have built houses and let them out to these parents.

Carpooling is also another option where parents can share the responsibility of dropping their children on a rotation basis. The concept is already gaining popularity even as motorcycle-sharing is widely seen.

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