No discounted fare for Vayu Vajra passengers to/from Esteem Mall/Dairy Gate

I take the BIAS (Vayu Vajra) daily to commute to my office in shanthinagar. Have given up using my car and bike for office commute more than a year back (mentioned it on my blog few months back).

Today morning me and my co-commuters at the Esteem Mall/Dairy Gate stop were surprised by the bus conductor on Vayu Vajra BIAS 12. He said that if we wanted to board from the esteem mall stop we would have to pay the airport fare (180rs) to Shanthinagar. Which came as a shock on a nice monday morning. He added, that we could go to the next stop (Hebbal) and board the bus to get the 30rs fare.

This really is heartbreaking for many people, who have been using the nice public transport for commute. So, instead of extending the discounted fare to bus stops beyond Esteem Mall, like kodigehalli etc. they have gone the other way. The airport buses utilization was good because of this service and can improve if extended to stops beyond Esteem mall.

BMTC charges 30 rupees for a one way ride to and from  Shanthinagar to Esteem Mall. And I have made friends with many people who take these BIAS buses to various places in the city to get to office. I know people take the BIAS6 and BIAS7A to get to Domlur and adjoining areas. BIAS7 and BIAS7A are good to reach HSR layout. BIAS5 and BIAS12 connect well to JP Nagar and Jaya Nagar areas. And ofcourse the BIAS8 and BIAS8A to Electronics City. These buses are a big convenience, and it would have made sense to extend the service to other areas beyond Esteem Mall. As it also improves the utilization of the Airport buses and brings in good amount of revenue to BMTC.

I would like to hear from the senior members at Praja, some way to contact the decision makers at BMTC to understand their rationale on this change and would like to present to them the case of many commuters who have been impacted by this change.