Every weekend the bustling commercial areas in Whitefield become inaccessible due to traffic jams. Lack of adequate public transport and basic amenities like pedestrian crossings, make commuting here a nightmare. Similar is the case in many areas on the outskirts of city simply because traffic management in these parts has never been a priority for the BMTC. Amit S. Upadhye reports.
If traffic in the heart of the city is bad, it doesn’t get any better on its outskirts. While the more distant suburbs like Whitefield and Electronic City may now have their own entertainment, malls, and shopping areas, they are still not adequately served by the BMTC, forcing people to depend on their own cars or bikes to catch a movie or even visit a friend in the vicinity, leading to more traffic than is necessary on their roads.
Strangely, the BMTC, which has provided bus services from these suburbs to the city centre, doesn’t seem to think they need services within as well, forgetting that they have become self-sufficient in many ways over the years.
So while these areas have seen rapid growth in terms of business and residential establishments, they continue to lag behind in connectivity, which is most evident on the weekends when thousands of people living in them have no choice but to take out their cars or bikes to go to the local market or a nearby restaurant for a meal.
The BMTC has clearly not caught up with the times as it still treats far off suburbs included in BBMP limits some years ago differently even where its fares are concerned.
Continuing to ply red board buses to areas like Whitefield, while using black board buses in the more central parts of Bangalore, it charges passengers on the former Rs 200 more for a monthly bus pass than on the latter. And while the daily fare on red board buses is Rs 9.25 per km, it is Rs 7.25 on black board buses.
“Though areas such as Hebbal, Kadugodi and Whitefield are now covered by the BBMP the BMTC continues to charge passengers in these parts a higher fare. This discourages many from taking public transport,” says Vinay Sreenivasa, a civic activist and member of Hasiru Usiru, lamenting that although its been six years since many of these areas were brought under the BBMP, the BMTC doesn’t seem to have recognised this fact as yet.
Ashwin Mahesh, member of ABIDe, suggests running circular feeder services for short trips of 2 to 3 kms in areas like Whitefield and Electronics City to cater to their interiors. “These feeder services can drop passengers on the main roads where more buses are available. Presently, we have only buses starting from the suburbs to the city centre, but none to cater to their own needs,” he notes.
Besides introducing feeder services, the BMTC needs to make sure they have suitable timings, say traffic experts.
“Look at the Metro services in cities like New Delhi. Their timings help many hop on to them. The BMTC too needs to rationalise its services and intelligently distribute its fleet,” says transport expert and CEO, Gubbi Labs, H.S. Sudhira.
The more remote suburbs of the city also have fewer traffic police than the rest of city. Traffic conditions are predictably poor in fast growing localities like Electronic City and Whitefield as the skeletal police staff spared for these parts find it hard to regulate them.
No room for pedestrian crossings here!
Although traffic is growing on the outskirts of the city, the BBMP hasn’t done enough to create better amenities for pedestrians either in these parts. There are no safe road crossing points on many stretches here despite the highways passing through them, regret traffic experts.
“Take the areas around Peenya, which have wide roads but hardly any crossing points for pedestrians. Sometimes people need to walk over 500 meters simply to get to the other side of the road.
The situation is no different in Whitefield and Electronic City,” they say.
In their view as the roads are relatively wide in these localities, the authorities can easily create cycling lanes besides vehicle–free zones in their residential areas.
“There are a number of stretches where you need pedestrian crossings quite desperately. People encroaching on footpaths to grow plants or extend their home gardens is proving a nuisance as well,” says Ravi Kumar, a member of a resident welfare association in Whitefield.
Despite ordinary commuters and pedestrians complaining of stepmotherly treatment by the BMTC, BBMP and the traffic police, the authorities concerned have done little to redress the situation. Instead they are doing what they are best at: Brushing the problem under the carpet.
‘Meet local area mobility needs with minibuses’
Pranav Jha
Most mobility planning in Bangalore is done with only the the central city in mind. But Bangalore’s future lies in its suburbs and satellite towns. Its this the planners need to consider.
If you look at Whitefield today, signal timings on roads and bus frequencies are mostly planned for morning commuters coming to it.
Local roads are however, packed on Saturdays, with people coming out to shop in their own cars and parking them on trunk roads.
Also, if you live on Varthur Road, and want to take a bus to go shopping in Mahadevapura, you can only travel on one bus route.
And if you live in the Whitefield main market area, and want to go to ITPL, again you have a choice from very few bus routes.
This is because all bus routes head out towards central Bangalore. The BMTC needs to start thinking of meeting local area mobility needs through minibuses or shuttles. Or else it could indirectly
promote the motor culture in Whitefield and similar suburban areas.
There are train lines as well to take you from Whitefield to almost every other corner of the Bangalore metropolitan area. It only needs a joint order from the Union railway ministry and and the government of Karnataka to get this started.
Whitefield can easily be connected to Peenya, Nelamangala, Bidadi, ElectronÂics City and more by train. But lack of focus on suburban areas is delaying the commuter rail service that can make
this happen.
—The writer is from Praja RAAG (Research, Analysis and Advocacy Group)
