Date:14/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/14/stories/2007091462520300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

City packs its bags to celebrate festival weekend

Anil Kumar Sastry

Bus and railway stations gear up to receive lakhs of travellers

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Nowhere to go: File picture shows the gridlock on Raja Ram Mohun Roy Road during the Deepavali weekend last year. The traffic spilled over all the way from the Majestic area.

BANGALORE: If you still remember hurrying along the Kempe Gowda Road to reach Majestic to catch that bus or train en route to your festival weekend getaway, you might consider leaving home much early. In fact, you should. For, the crazy rush has already started, with tens of thousands of Bangaloreans leaving the city to celebrate Ganesha Chaturthi in their native places. The Majestic area is likely to be gridlocked with both the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and private operators deploying hundreds of additional buses to cater to the festival rush.

Last year, the crush was such that the traffic spilled over to Richmond Circle, Queen’s Circle, Okalipuram Junction, Malleswaram Circle, Minerva Circle and Mysore Circle on all major roads leading to and from Majestic. Many people missed their buses and trains when they were caught in a three-hour traffic jam during the festival. Jayakumar Patil, a resident of Malleswaram, still has not forgotten his ordeal though he was lucky not to miss his bus. “It took us almost an hour to reach Majestic, which is hardly three km from my home. We had to get down from the autorickshaw near Swastik and walk all the way to Majestic to catch the Bagalkot bus,” he said.

Additional buses

KSRTC is deploying additional buses to places such as Kumta, Sirsi, Kundapur, Mangalore, Belgaum, Karwar, Gokarna, Shimoga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Bellary, Davangere, Madikeri, Hubli and so on from the Kempe Gowda Bus Station (KBS) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Moreover, special services will be operated from these places to Bangalore on Sunday and Monday.

Efforts

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) K.C. Ramamurthy told The Hindu that the traffic police would make all efforts to arrange smooth flow of traffic with available resources. “We cannot ban private vehicles as the Majestic area is a thoroughfare to reach other parts of the city,” he said.

KSRTC Director (Security and Vigilance) M.A. Saleem said instead of bringing buses just before the night departure from depots, the vehicles would be stationed at Majestic in the afternoon itself.