Private buses to be banned within Bengaluru?

Bengaluru: In an attempt to decongest the city and bring down pollution levels, the state transport department has proposed banning the entry of ‘stage carrier’ private buses within the city limits. The first meeting of the State Transport Authority (STA) which was held on Thursday, discussed this issue.

Stage carriers are those private buses which have received permission from the state government to ferry passengers within the city limits. Currently over a thousand trips were operated from various parts of the city to parts of Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and a number of towns in  Karnataka.

Transport Commissioner Ramegowda told this newspaper that their proposal was as follows: To check the rising pollution levels and traffic congestion, these buses should not enter the city limits.

The  buses could be parked outside the city and passengers could be dropped and picked up from there, was the suggestion. "It was the first meeting. We listened to the views of the bus owners," he said.

Stiff resistance
Bus owners who participated in Thursday's meeting urged the state transport department to drop the proposal. They argued that if buses were stopped from entering the city, their business would collapse.

"Bus owners warned that if the state government went ahead with the proposal, they would challenge it in court. The meeting was concluded without taking any concrete decision,” he said.

But sources in the state transport department confirmed that with increasing air pollution levels due to these buses (which are powered by diesel engines) and traffic congestion, especially in the IT corridor of the city, the government has been left with no choice but to prohibit these buses from entering the city.

"We can ask BMTC to introduce CNG engines. But private operators are not ready for this. So the only option left for us is to ban them from entering the city limits," said an officer.