The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Plan before you travel during polls

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Monday, Apr 28, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Plan before you travel during polls

Anil Kumar Sastry

Buses and taxis may be in short supply because of elections

KSRTC, BMTC to provide 1,100 buses for poll duty
Government may engage taxis for official duty

BANGALORE: Plan well if you are travelling by bus or taxis around election time as the Election Commission is gearing to take over hundreds of buses, taxis and other vehicles at least for three days — a day prior to the poll, on D-Day and the day after.

But the only consolation is that given the phased manner in which the 2008 Assembly elections are being held, it will not tell too much on the administration and the travelling public.

For Bangalore region, including Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, Urban and Rural districts, the election authorities have sought 1,800 vehicles, including buses, cars and jeeps. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will provide nearly 1,100 buses.

Transport Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana, who is coordinating sourcing of vehicles for election purposes, told The Hindu that a major requirement of small vehicles such as cars and jeeps would be met from the government pool itself.

Taxis

The department, through the Regional Transport Officers, might requisition taxis, he said.

Apart from cars and jeeps allotted to State Government officers for official use, cars and jeeps allotted to heads of boards and corporations, local bodies such as zilla panchayats, city municipal councils and city corporations, which cannot be used by office-bearers because of election code of conduct, would be deployed for election purposes, Mr. Lakshminarayana said.

Fine tuning

He said the KSRTC would fine tune its operations through its pool of spare buses and requisition buses from other regions.

A similar practice would be followed during the second and third phases of polls. Moreover, as polling stations are situated within one km distance of voters’ residence, people hardly require public transport, Mr. Lakshminarayana said.

BMTC would offer 600 buses for election authorities and nearly 100 buses for the police, said Chief Traffic Manager Dastagir Sharieff.

Spare buses

“We have nearly 400 spare buses and we will deploy them during the elections for regular operations,” Mr. Sharieff said and added that buses on regular routes run empty on the election day because people would be busy with electioneering.

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