BMTC drivers have little respect for time

Buses plying from Madiwala to Indiranagar stop for almost 10 minutes at bus-stops located after Sony World and Ejipura signal.

I have not written this article to defame BMTC but to bring out an issue which I come across every day on my commute to work. I stay in Madiwala and my office is in Indiranagar. I either catch bus route number 201 D or 201 M/A. I board these buses from Ayyappa Temple or Madiwala Masjid bus-stop.

Underpass construction work on Ayyapa Temple road started at the end of last month. This has increased traffic in and around Koramangala Water Tank. I am not here to complain about traffic. Heavy traffic during peak hours is common in a city like Bangalore.

The main issue is that, buses plying from Madiwala to Indiranagar stop for too long at bus-stops located after Sony World and Ejipura signal. The bus drivers stop for almost 10 minutes in each bus stop. This has been happening from the last week of May, around the time the underpass construction work at Ayyappa Temple road started.

Daily routine

Usually, just after crossing the Sony World signal in Koramangala, the buses simply stop at the Sony World signal bus-stop, wasting others time. Meantime, buses such as 201 G coming from Banashankari to Indiranagar smoothly overtake us.

201D and 201M/A bus drivers say they are waiting for more passengers. The bus then moves from Sony World signal only after some passengers start to complain. After this, at Ejipura signal bus-stop buses will halt for quite some time for conductors to issue tickets. When some commuters question this, one conductor said, "There is checking in next stop so I have to give all commuters ticket." So far I have never seen any checking taking place in the next signal which is the Dell bus-stop.

On my return journey from Indiranagar to Madiwala as well, I come across the same thing. The same buses stop after Domlur flyover to issue tickets. In such cases, instead of stopping the bus to issue tickets, the conductor should only allow people with bus-passes.

Some details

June 3, 2010: Bus number KA01F 1795, departed Madiwala at 10.00 am. The driver did not listen to the conductor’s instruction to get the bus going.

Similar such incidents took place on June 17th and June 18th. The bus numbers were KA01F 1413 and KA01F 1956 respectively.

The other day, the conductor of a bus asked the driver to start moving on passengers’ complaints. But the driver was busy reading the newspaper. After whistling for quite sometime, the conductor gave up and just sat on the last seat of the bus. However, some passengers went ahead and had an argument with the bus driver. The bus driver asked the commuters to board another bus and said, “It’s a government bus and for any complaints go to BMTC.”

It usually takes one hour to reach Indiranagar from Madiwala, but now it takes around one-and-half hours and sometimes two hours to reach Indiranagar, thanks to such issues. This request is not to increase the speed of the buses, but to stop wasting passengers’ time.   ⊕

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