The ambitious bus priority lane on the Outer Ring Road, which will run from Silk Board to Tin Factory, is the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s dream project. The trial run, which was announced recently by BMTC, commenced on Sunday, October 20 and the project is likely to be formalised on November 1.
The left lane in the main carriageway between Silk Board and K.R. Puram will be dedicated entirely to BMTC buses and will have steel bollards to separate it physically from the rest of the road. 45 new bus services have been started exclusively for this corridor.
On ground, however, the new lane has already started facing problems because the corporation and other agencies, like the BBMP, have a long way to go in terms of providing civic infrastructure like bollards and signage. The pilot, which is being set up on a 17-km stretch, has bollards only a few places, like Marathahalli multiplex. “Agencies must race against the clock to meet the November 1 deadline for regular operations on the priority lane to commence on time,” says a BBMP official.
The BBMP claim, however, that they are “confident” about meeting the deadline and have installed bollards over a five-kilometer stretch. BMTC officials say drivers are being trained to use the lane. However, on Sunday, several other buses were spotted on the specially-demarcated stretch, defeating the purpose of the excercise.
