The plan to build a large, formal bus stand for Mangalore had been conceived some years ago. Mangalore's original bus stand at Hampankatta had been too small with no scope for any expansion as it had been sandwiched right in the heart of town (CBD). Hence, KSRTC had shifted out to a newer facility of it's own long ago, however private buses continued to use the same bus-stand. With efflux of time, increased number of buses & severe congestion, the inter-city bus stand was moved to Statebank, close to the fishing harbour, which had long been the terminus for intra-city buses (The Hampankatta bus stand is now a convenient parking facility). Within a few years, due to increasing growth rate/s, much higher number of buses & space constraints, the need for a much larger facility was becoming more & more acute.
The location for a new inter-city bus-stand at Pumpwell had been chosen carefully - this location is adjacent NH-17 (Mumbai-Kanyakumari highway, that cuts through Mangalore city areas) & very close to the intersection between the two major highways, NH-17 & NH-48 (Mangalore-Bangalore highway). Further, it was about equi-distant from the two railway stations (Mangalore Central on the west, & Mangalore Junction on the east), each about 3-4 kms away.
An area of 7.5 acres had been earmarked for the project, & since the area is mostly low-lying, with paddy fields, the need to raise the ground level for easy access from the highway (NH-17) was part of the project. Karnataka bank had earlier acquired some land on the opposite side of the highway, filled it up & built it's head quarters adjacent to the location, as did several other businesses & some industries, too.
The corporation recently announced acquisition of an additional 11 acres of hilly terrain & forest lands further away from NH-17 highway, but adjacent to the land already earmarked for the bus-stand (7.5 acres). The idea now is to convert this bus stand to a large, full-fledged transportation hub, which will house KSRTC, as well as all private inter-city as well as intra-city buses, offices & related infrastructure. Flyovers at Pumpwell circle & at Nanthur cross are also being planned for easy access to this hub.
The sad part is that a lot of beautiful hilly forest areas are being mowed down for supplying the needed earth. Some of this land belonged to my ancestors & when we were children, we had made regular "picnic" visits to our farms & the adjacent hills (most of this is being taken over now for the project now). A 40-ft road is being planned for trucks to operate adjacent the farmhouses on to the hills to transfer earth from the hill-forests to the low-lying fields. Development demands a very high price from some, after all !!
For the report about this on TOI, click here.
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