I saw in Citizen Matters that I could volunteer for Bus Day this month:
So I’ve registered myself….let’s see what I am asked to do, and what happens! It’s going to be interesting, and I am rather tickled by the concept that "celebrities" cannot take the bus without assistance!
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The Urban Development Department published the draft Greater Bengaluru Authority (Parking) Rules, 2026 on August 11 and opened it up to the public to give suggestions and file objections. This draft is the legal framework meant to strengthen Bengaluru's Parking Policy 2.0, introduced by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport in Feb 2021. When the parking policy was first brought in, the idea was to discourage the use personal vehicles and free up road space to ensure better mobility. However, the draft rules mostly focus on creating paid on-street parking zones, off-street parking on corporation land, leasing vacant private plots to run…
Imagine the entire population of a small country getting packed beyond capacity in trains so that they can reach their workplace. This is what happens on Mumbai’s suburban railway trains daily. Every day 62 lakh people travel by the Central Railway in Mumbai—that’s almost the entire population of Singapore. Not to be sidetracked, the Western Railway (WR) ferries 31 lakh commuters daily—that's the number of people who live in the whole of Mongolia.It is no surprise that Mumbai’s suburban railway network draws unimaginable crowds. After all, it is one of the most affordable, fastest and well-connected means of transport available…
Update: Today I got a call from Girija of BMTC (phone no. 2295 2522) who asked me where (of four locations, including Silk Board, and Electronics City) I’d like to be. Then she told me that East End was also one of the locations, and I have volunteered for that, for the evening shift.
The other two locations were Mekhri Circle and Majestic.
080411 update: Late yesterday, I got an SMS from mobile no. 98865 19061, as follows:
“Please contact Mr Nithin Hegde at 77609 91012 regarding any clarification about bus day tmrw. Pls inform him you are a non-bmtc volunteer. Regards/bmtc team”.
Just now, I called the number and spoke to Mr Nithin Hegde, who asked me how I had got his number, who gave it to me (I explained)…and he said “Namge enu gotthilla” (I don’t know anything)….I’ve been calling the mobile no from which the message came, and I am not able to get through.
I’m probably going to East End by 5pm, see what I can do….
I am wondering what happened after 5PM.Request you to continue the post with your Bus Day experience as volunteer. Thanks
Another update: I did go and spend until 6.30pm there; as far as I could see, no VIP or other notable seemed to come to East End! But it was nice to watch the cross-section of people who DO use the buses regularly, and then I walked to Ranga Shankara to see a play.