The presence of buses at the flagging-off ceremony seems to have been symbolic, as was the schedule given by the depot and the confirmation by officials that the buses were in operation. And as of this morning, more than a week later, the opinionforming, feedback-providing public is yet to make its acquaintance with the mysterious Marco Polo.
For the full story, click on:
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Luxury+buses:+In+pursuit+of+Marco+Polo&artid=4MVNhEgLgWA=&SectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&MainSectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&SEO=luxury+buses,+Ashok,+Marco+Polo&SectionName=UOaHCPTTmuP3XGzZRCAUTQ==
Leave alone "Yelli Iddira?", leave alone route rationalisation, leave alone displaying bilingual destination boards. All I am asking is that they display just the route numbers in internationally recognisable Arabic numerals (as they are called) on say atleast 90% of the buses prominently (Just check out for yourself, when you step out, whether what I am saying is true or not). Can anyone manage that? I would like to see.
Muralidhar Rao
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Way to go
State to have new transport policy
The policy will propose to streamline the operation of buses.
The number of buses to be operated on a particular route will be decided on the basis of population, Ashok said. “Lack of such a system has resulted in imbalance in bus operations. While some places have more than the required number, other areas do not have bus services at all,” he said.
I wouldn't say that!
The only mention therein about private sector players is a vague "The policy will also take care of the welfare of drivers of private vehicles".
Elsewhere, the minister has been quoted as being inimical to competition from private players. Not just that, he has even gone to the extent of threatening to extend the government monopoly to districts presently enjoying fairly good services by the private sector players.
Muralidhar Rao
another wasted effort
Text of a mail posted on HU yahoogroup:
Dear bangaloreans. .
Around 4-5 months back we had started an initiative called citytravelsurvey. com as an attempt to resolve Bangalore traffic. This mail is intended to give an update on that to people who participated in this.
First of let us express our extreme gratitude to all of you for participating this survey.
The purpose was.
1. To capture travel nature around industrial parks in Bangalore scientifically.
2. To create a data of how many people travel from any of the bus stop in Bangalore to any of the specific industrial park at a specific time. And to allocate the bus services meeting this demand.
What we achieved..
We have presented this to many people in BMTC including then BMTC MD, Mr Upendra Tripathy and CTMO Mr. Sharief. In fact, they were interested and very keen in the concept and delegated further task to others. But final decision or plan on how to utilize citytravelsurvey.com, is kept postponed and there were role/designation changes in BMTC including that of Mr. Upendra Tripaty. We could not even fix an appointment with the new MD to explain things. Since there was only postponement even though we did continuous follow up, we were forced to shutdown the operations of citytravelsurvey. com as we found spending on it not making any benefit to Bangalore.
What was our offer to BMTC?
We have promised biweekly reports (Please see the attached document).And in return they should pay us the expense for running the website.
What went wrong?
Due to tight schedules of BMTC officials, our follow ups did not make expected results. And person who committed to take actions, got role/designation changes. (maintenance cost was not an issue for BMTC but time to look at this idea and urge to implement it)
What happened to the site?
As we did not get even basic support for maintenance of the site, we were forced to close Operation of the site completely.
What can do next?
If any of you have good influence in BMTC, probably they could do something to restart citytravelsurvey. com operations. Please reply back if any of you are capable of influencing BMTC current officials.
Please read FAQ document and Travel report which is presented to BMTC officials
Many Thanks, CityTravelSurvey.com
My note: A very familiar story. A charitable explanation is 'red tape'. The fact of the matter, however, is that they don't want change, since change upsets well-entrenched vested interests.
Muralidhar Rao