Introduction of Vajra services in Bangalore has been one of phenomenal step taken by BMTC. It has really helped lot of people especially women to travel with ease in Bangalore. BMTC has introduced lot of Volvo buses with appropriate frequencies for most of the areas in Bangalore. Its obviously an elcome step.
People of almost all the aresa are happy except the people of Mathikere who feels left out. Out of more than 300 - 400 Volvo buses running every day in Bangalore doesn't bother to touch Mathikere at all. The only bus provided to Mathikere is 500KB to ITPL which takes its on sweet time to reach ITPL. Rather than being convenience to the daily commuters, it looks like 500KB is more suitable to new comers to Bangalore who are interested in site seeing, because it goes round and round over Bangalore to reach ITPL.
No Volvo from Mathikere to Majestic, Not even to Shivajinagar, no appropriate bus to ITPL, No bus to Electronic City. No Bus to MG Road.
Whereas I have seen buses from Majestic to Hebbal in hich most of the times I have not seen more than 5 passegers.
Vidyaranyapura buses are diverted via New BEL road, again which has very less commuters to Mathikere. hy this discrimination. Arent people of Mathikere paying fares. If that is the case please bring this out to public or govt notice. Why devoid people of Mathikere of this important Service?
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Vajra service - HIT ....... BIG HIT
Sprint raj,
Vajra services are unworthy of travelling........... What..???????
> Its expensive - I paid RS 40 from EC to Wilson garden. Wow..... 3.2 times more than BMTC.
> Sometimes I think i can walk and reach earlier. Very slow, The driver literally scared to proceed more than 40 km/h.
> BMTC and pushpak has equally comfort seats as in Volvo ( okay okay.......... leg room is more in VOLVO).
> irrespective of exorbitant fair, the bus is crowded, wherein I have to wait for my turn to sit even after paying excessive amount. ( Grrrrrrrrrrr. ).
> The officials are much happier to see the large red buses travelling around with a good margin of profit. ( What........?? i can hardly see any BMTC buses in EC, Bannerghatta Road or hosur road.... obviously its a hit..!!!!!!?
Mathikere residents should be happy enough to see some savings at the EOD.
No Volvo's to RT Nagar also
I am also awaiting to see when will BMTC launch any Vajra towards RT Nagar. Its very strange to notice BMTC running 500KB from Mathiekere to ITPL via Vijaynagar. The same route can be started from Matherikere reach Outer Ring Road @ BEL & proceed via the Ring Road to ITPL which will be a far far shorter route from Mathiekere to ITPL. It will help a lot of employees in that route too. Totally accept on the point that they are making profit on the Vajra's. If you notice the Number of 335E,331A,356,360B,201R are growing day by day & most often they are all jam packed. Trust in the vision of BMTC to have 1000 buses by 2011 will help RT Nagar with some Vajra's.
Sunil Kumar
myousuff
Agree that Vajra services are costly. But you normally have a greater chances of getting a seat or atleast stand comfortably. Moreover in Bangalore e have different people of different capability. If you distribute the crowd on basis of crowd, then also its a fair deal. The person paying higher can also get a seat and can thus help the other group hich is paying lower to travel without the extra crowd.
And regarding the speed of volvo buses, I dont have any comments because I feel they are most of the time faster. Its not because of the speed of the volvo buses, its just because of the traffic that they are slow.
Annd regarding the crowd, that can be still maintained by introducing ne buses( though it will not resolve the issue completely). But only during peak office hours ( especially in the evening) they are crowded), but most of the time almost all the seats are empty
This is not new.....
Recently i tried to map the volvo services on a map based only on the routes put up on the BMTC webssite without taking into account the frequency of the services. Its quite startling that the high end volvo services are concentrated only to the south and west of bangalore. I wonder why the bias?? This isn't something new considering the BMLTA had indicated in one of its reports the skew in BMTC services. This not just the case with volvos. Even most of the normal buses have a higher frequency on the south and the west of bangalore.
From the mapping i did on the volvos, this is finding below. considering bangalore as clock, the BMTC volvos serve only 2 quadrants effectively and don't bother about the rest...
The biases in not just restricted to Volvo only!
Vinod,
Thanks for this wonder piece of information on Volvo routes presence in the city. It confirms what the BMLTA has already said in their report
"http://www.deccanherald.com/content/18299/bangalores-bus-connectivity-lopsided.html"
This pattern of lopsided is not just restricted to Volvo only, it is evident in entire BMTC services - Routes, frequencies, schedule, fleet etc.
This malaise is also evident in other areas of civic life in city. BBMP, BDA, KEB, almost all civic agencies has this skewed planning and development in the areas you have noted.
The reason for this kind of skewed policies lies in the fact that these areas are impoverished, many localities in these areas are inhabited by the citizens from lower strata and income level.
BMTC seems to love running more services to Koramangala and Indira Nagar than running decent service to D J Halli, J C Nagar etc.
The blame equally is to be laid on the people and the public representatives (MLAs, Councilors) of these areas who have no urge to ask for better amenities. I am one among them.
Roads and the type of local population is considered
Roads are considered before running Volvos. They need bit larger turning radius compared to normal buses. Also, few areas where traffic is full of rage driving for example RPC Layout to Binny mill shortcut, or for example Tilak Nagar, BMTC is reluctant to run Volvo service. Even in Mysore, Udayagiri and NR Mohalla is full of rage drivers and KSRTC Mysore division does not run Volvos to these areas. All other areas have got Volvos.
I travel daily from BSK 3rd Stage to Marathalli on 500K. It is very fast compared to normal buses and overtake many normal buses. Smaller distances have expensive prices as compared to larger distances. From BSK 3rd Stage to Silkboard it is 20 rupees, Silkboard to Marathalli again 20 rupees, on the other hand BSK 3rd Stage to Marathalli it is 26 rupees. So, reduce hoping Volvos. I ended up paying 40 rupees for taking 201R till Silkboard and 500D from Silkboard to Marathalli whereas a single travel in 500K would have resulted in 26 rupees. 26 rupees is far cheaper compared to car travel which would need 75 rupees and high concentration driving. It is not too much crowded like normal bmtc buses, standing in ac is comfortable. Sudden braking and acceleration causes problems while standing .. mostly dependent on driver's driving style.
BSK III Stg to Majestic which costs 70 rupees whereas it cost just 15 rupees in Volvo, 11 in Pushpak, 10 in ordinary bus.
The response..no offence
"Roads and the type of local population is considered"
The question of roads space availabity sound like typical BMTC response. I am sure the volvo is as manoeuvrable as any typical BMTC bus, if not its not worth its money.
How is that other normal BMTC buses are able to ply on these very same roads. And also i'm sure there are wide enough roads in the north and north-east of bangalore which can accomadate the volvos without much issues. Below i will provide some typical examples. If BIAS "vayu vajras" buses can cross this very same part of the city, why "vajra" buses can't if fail to understand. Half of the BIAS buses pass through cantonment, jayamahal road, mekhri circle. Its the not the problem with roads or the buses. Its to do with prejudiced thinking & historical bias prevalent in the BMTC towards the north and east of bangalore. The prejudiced thinking is that its only the poor that live in this part of the city, its true that this part of the city is home to higher percentage of poor people than others parts of the city. But people aspire and grow, they don't remain poor for ever. The historical bias is that only migrants live in this part of the town. And its not that the entire north and east of bangalore is concentrated with poor people, the fact is that the erstwhile british raj flourished in this part of the city called the "cantonment" with area like benson town, cleveland town, cox town, frazer town , cooke town, hutchins layout. Just go to this part of the town to see how wide the roads are...If i may add malleshwaram,sadashivnagar, sanjaynagar, RMV,dollars colony are not where poor people live. Our CM has his private residence at RMV. Why aren't these areas being served enough by our public transport monopoly(mono-ploy).:-)
I have been very critical of BMTC in the above paragraph, in line with praja spirit let me make some constructive suggestions.Let me make a few route suggestion here for the east and north of bangalore. Let the BMTC try them and see the response. Other please add to the route suggestion.
1. BEL Road-RT Nagar-Matadahalli-TV Tower-Nandidurga Road-St Johns Road-Ulsoor Millenia towers-Old madras road-suranjan das road-bagmane tech park-beml-airport-marathahalli-itpl/varhtur kodi-kadugodi
2.RMV layout-sanjaynagar-mekhri circle-jayamahal road-cantonment railway station-queens road-indian express-kasturba road-mallya road-richmond road-airport road-marathahalli......
3. Hennur main road-bangalore east-cox town-wheeler road-assaye road-manipal centre-mg road-cut through to electronic city
vinod
P.S: Finally if i may add, even the metro phase-I alignment is similar to the bias exhibited by BMTC services. The hope is that the correction will happen with phase-II alignments
North-East Bangalore ignored?
Vinod - that plot of yours (assuming its correct) is very interesting. How does it compare to coverage map/frequency of BMTC's regular services? Syed has been insisting there is bias there as well.
Are at least the low end services (including Atal Sarige) aimed at these 'ignored' areas?
It seems true that most fancy plans of city's agencies are aimed at South and East side of the city. Put in more money, attract more people. More corwd, and then demand for more investments. Kind of like how Bangalore is crowding faster than Tier-2 cities of Karnataka.
However, from public transit angle
BMTC volvo routes..
Except for vajra 276G from vidyaranyapur-electronic city, none cross the north, north-east of the city. considering only 4 buses used on this route, I'm the frequency is every 1 hour or more.
Regards,
vinod
402T a very odd Route
I dont know why the BMTC has launched the 402T, which is having a Bangalore Darshan for passenger going from Yelahanka to ITPL. The same route can be run via Yelahaka-Byataraynapura,Hebbal,Kalyanagar,KR Puram , Mahadevapura & ITPL.This way the diesel & the traval time will also be saved.
Sunil Kumar
500K and 335E
29 and 23 buses. Almost like a bus corridor there. Now, if we could put dedicated lanes at just a few places for these routes, we will have people standing on the roof of these to get home faster than their cars and bikes.
You have to go to ITPL one evening to see the rush for 500/K/N/CKB etc. Its sort of like a Mumbai local at Dadar at 5 pm. Run and grab your seat as soon as the doors open.
I wll try get a video of the rush next week.
Vayu Vajra's need a fix, fast. Those bleeding services are giving the whole quality ride idea a bad name.
Actually 500C seems to have more frequency now
Based on my last couple of weeks trips, 500C (Banashankari to ITPL) seems far more frequent than 500K (Vijayanagar to ITPL). Maybe the Kadirenahalli underpass woes are a contributing factor to reducing 500K.
ORR (SB to Hebbal) can have a dedicated bus lane. Sadly there are too many places (HSR layout, etc) where there is more sand than tar on the left most lane and thus people tend not to use it. Sometimes I am not sure we can have a dedicated lane with the sort of mix we have - but that is another story.
BMTC seems again to have proliferated routes on the Vajra service. 500C is great for people like me - comes every 5 minutes and gets me from Jayanagar 5th block to Brookfields in 45 mins - as good as a car. 335E is another fantastic service.
Now maybe a 500K from Banashankari to WOC Road via Vijayanagar every 10 mins is good option. This makes the journey for the driver a bit more manageable. WOC Road to ITPL must be a 2 hr drive.
Vajra 2 is a grossly underutilized service. Trying to see what routes are feasible from Kalyan Nagar/HRBR Layout . How does one plot lines on googlemaps?
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
The lopsided/skewed distributions is in all types of services!
SB,
With regard to your question,
Vinod - that plot of yours (assuming its correct) is very interesting. How does it compare to coverage map/frequency of BMTC's regular services? Syed has been insisting there is bias there as well.
The lopsided planning and skewed distributions is all across the BMTC routes for North and East areas. This includes the Red Boards, Pushpaks and regular service.
We can debate whether this lopsided distribution is due to discrimination by design or by purpose or just because planners and official at BMTC all come from South and West areas.
Even though BMTC is part of socialist obligations for the benefit of public, but here in this case it is skewed planning that is promoting the short service to the most needed areas.
Market theory demands that you will put more resources for those markets where there is a demand. In that sense the areas whose population affords private transportation is being served with more buses, routes etc. The areas for whom the public transport is a need, is being short served.
Now we live in a different times where Market demands and socialist obligation has to integrate and merge into one another. That calls for accepting the shortcomings in present setup and going all out for complete re haul on routes and schedules. Redesign the routes, schedules and frequency based on the actual needs - Citizens, City, State and National needs.
Silver lining here is, I had brought this up (specially Vinod's drawings) with our contacts in BMTC and those resources have assures us that they are working on fixing the lopsided distribution of BMTC services in the city. They have not committed any time frame. This sounds encouraging. I think from Praja side we need to step up our efforts and present the facts, its interpretation, its impacts and suggested fixes. Then follow up for the implementation. As the saying says only crying baby gets the attention.
Vinod, we can plan for a meeting with BMTC on this!
Vinod,
Your distribution graph is compelling me to pursue a meeting with BMTC through our Praja-BMTC engagement team. Let me know if you would be game for this.
This meeting should be with one point agenda to ask questions about lopsided distribution of BMTC service. It should be a fact laden presentations to tell BMTC point blank that it is time they need to fix their planning and operation philosophies.
Our agenda would be to cover all types of BMTC services not just Volvo. Volvo study is just the manifestation of BMTC's skewed operation strategy.
Also the suggestions would not be to short serve any area, rather provide the decent bus service in all areas.
What we may need is:
1. Distribution graphs/maps for different BMTC services
2. Analytical analysis of population distribution in terms of demand quantum in neglected areas vs service rich areas.
3. A list of questions to BMTC on this topic?
This meeting could only be scheduled after the event 'Mobilicity', i.e 2nd or 3rd week of December.
Leave a note if anybody would like to be part of this exercise?
Syed
I'm game for this..
syed,
I am game for this. Even i thought we should take this up with the BMTC through our established links. And also we need data to do fact based analysis, create maps of distribution density, population density etc.
I agree with you idea that it should be a single point agenda, to give it enough focus and the attention it deserves.
1. What kind of data we need?
2.Is the data already available on the BMTC website?If not how do we get it from BMTC?
3.DULT report on BMTC skewed bus distribution.
4.Based on the delimitation of wards done by EC. We can stick to the new wards, get the population figures based on the wards. May be we need to do a bit of extrapolation on these data.
5.Number of buses that pass through any given ward, routes and number of buses for that route will give us a good no. of buses/thousand population/ward. which we can use an index for further analysis.
vinod
List the questions, will try to get answers from BMTC!
Vinod,
Thanks for accepting my invitation.
List the questions whose answers will help build an analysis that represents the BMTC's current service distribution to different areas in B'lore. For the answers, we can run them with the BMTC itself and ask for the data. DULT report would be good source to ask for.
I like your idea of doing some analysis for:
"Number of buses that pass through any given ward, routes and number of buses for that route will give us a good no. of buses/thousand population/ward. which we can use an index for further analysis.
I think start would be just a spreadsheet listing the wards and its jurisdictional areas. Then keep on adding data to those wards for every service that BMTC run. You seems to have the data for Volvo services.
Syed