Bellary Road Big 10

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Information first, cribs later! I finally managed to decode the mystery named Bellary Road Big 10. This one operates between Shivajinagar bus stand and Yelahanka. The route as I understand right now is:
 
From Shivajinagar bus stand - Indian Express Circle - Cunningham Road - Millers Road - Jayamahal Road - TV Tower, Mekhri Circle - CBI - Hebbal - Bytarayanapura - Yelahanka NES
 
From Yelahanka NES - Byatarayanapura - Hebbal - CBI - Mekhri Circle - TV Tower - Nandidurg Road - Cantonment Rly Station - Indian Express - Minsk Square - Cubbon Road - Central Street - Shivajinagar bus stand
 
I have been waiting for this service for a while now and when it finally happened, I have more cribs than positives to talk about. BMTC once again proved that they can be the worst when it comes to implementing a great vision. Here are my observations:
 

  1. It doesn't overlap with the Kendra Saarige at all! Somehow BMTC doesn't understand the need for an integrated transport system. If I take a Big 10 from Yelahanka and my final destination is Richmond circle, I have to negotiate the crowded Shivajinagar area to get on to a Blue or Orange line. The whole vision of the HO-HOs and Big 10s was great and I am wondering why the people who came up with the vision were not involved when it came to implementation. If indeed they were involved, why were the details completely missed out? It doesn't take too much to come up with a route that integrates Ho-Ho and Big10. For example, if the Bellary Road Big10 goes straight from Minsk Square to Jewels De Paragon (instead of turning left on Cubbon Road) and turns left on MG road towards Anil Kumble Circle and takes another left on to Central Street to proceed towards Shivajinagar, it will end up integrating the Blue and Orange lines very well. It will hardly add a kilometer and a half to the distance. I am sure such tweaks can be made to other Big 10 routes to seamlessly integrate with the Ho-Hos. Otherwise we will see these buses running empty as nobody in their right minds would even think of trying it.
  2. There is absolutely no information anywhere on these services. I wanted to find out about the Bellary road Big 10 and it took sheer determination to finally succeed. I spotted a couple of these buses on Tuesday (10th March) morning while on my way to work. So I decided that I will try to get in one on my way back. Tried calling the BMTC helpline and got the message that the number doesn't exist. I left my office near UB City on Vittal Mallya road and got on a Blue line, checked with the crew, but they haven't even heard of such a thing. Since I remembered seeing Shivajinagar on the Big10 bus route board in the morning, I got down at the Cubbon Road - Central Street junction and walked to Shivajinagar bus stand. Whoever I asked around, didn't have a clue as to what a Big 10 is! I did a couple of back and forth trips between Cubbon Road and Shivajinagar bus stand and finally managed to spot one!
  3. I was expecting the fare to be in multiples of five. When I asked for a ticket from Shivajinagar to GKVK, the conductor came up with a fare of 12 rupees. In my broken Kannada I posed a question to him as to whether the fare is in multiples of 5. He took out a sheet and stared at it for nearly 10 minutes, flipped around, and finally said 12 rupees kodi saar. He gave me two tickets of 6 rupee denominations! Why was the conductor not trained on the fare structure? Why the hell was he carrying tickets of any denomination other than 5s? I understand that there was an exhaustive study done on fares and arrived at the pricing structure for Big10s. Does this mean that all the time, money, and effort spent in coming up with the fare structure was a mere exercise to waste public money?
  4. I can’t comment on the frequency of Big 10s. On one day I saw 2 of them back to back. The other day I waited in Shivajinagar bus stand close to half an hour and couldn’t get one.

All my excitement around using public transport as a commute mechanism has evaporated a lot faster than I imagined. It is taking sheer will power and tons of patience to continue to resist the temptation of getting behind the wheels again!