I saw people sitting on the roads with big boards and screaming at the mid of the night “ Bijli do , bijli do, dilli sarkar bijli do”….and I suddenly got up realizing it was a nightmare.
Well it wasn’t a nightmare but a flash back of reality which had happened some 20 years back in Delhi. During a peak summer season an area of Delhi didn’t have current continuously for few days including our house which was on Delhi-Meerut highway. And finally one night people sat on the roads blocking that highway and not letting the any vehicle pass by. I stood by at my balcony holding my parents and asked them “kal tak bijli aa jaegi na?” At times when things are not heard, we have to make things to be heard!
I google “KIA bus issue”, “BIA bus issue”, “Bangalore airport bus services issue” and nothing relevant was found.
Background: 2 weeks back, I board the airport bus KIA-8 on a Thursday to reach from my office in Manyata to Yelahanka and reached home safely. On Friday, I tried getting into the same bus at the same time and the conductor tells me it will not go to Yelahanka. I was confused, got down and waited for the next bus. And the incident repeated as the conductor said, it will go on the flyover and hence wouldn’t go Yelahanka or Kogilu cross, where I was supposed to get down. I still got into the bus and the driver explained that the routes have been changed from today and going forward all the Bangalore airport bus would go on newly constructed flyovers. I had to get down in midway somewhere and I took an auto to reach back home, which was late at night wondering things really change overnight in Bangalore.
Well two new flyovers have been constructed, one is almost an 8 km stretch and other one is about 12km, though I am really not sure about the second one. The availability of airport busses was the only reason why shifted to Yelahanka as I thought I would avoid the traffic and travel easily to reach office, although the airport bus fares are not too less.
Young population of Bangalore is sleeping: The day I reached Bangalore there was some “Bandh going on”. I still was on road because I had a necessity to search a house or a hostel. And that day I saw a guy with his SLR camera capturing the photos of vehicles running and shop which were open and I admired that the young population worked and held the responsibility in this place. And almost a year and half after this incident, I faced the airport bus issue and when I reached back home, all the neighbors told the same .There were so many young people taking that bus, when I asked what they are doing now? They said “they are switching 2 busses now”. Agreed that it was the most practical decision, but couldn’t they have worked towards achieving a better “win –win” for all. But no one did anything. Well you may ask “AAP ne(as in me) kya kiya?” .That would get answered in the later part of my blog.
Media is sleeping: I wasn’t able to digest the fact how the system can make such big changes overnight and tried googling again and again. I went through newspapers to see if there is any update on the changed bus routes, but all I got was no news found, no result found. I never thought media would sleep to this level.Has media lost the courage or was this was a very small issue to have been noticed by the media? Well I don’t think so it was small, because at least 100(Random numbers, no background check I have done, it’s a random guess) commuters have been affected on daily basis by the change of this route of the airport bus services whose regular travel route would fall below those newly constructed flyovers!
Environmental control teams are sleeping: So what was the result of the change? People had to arrange for an alternative transport, either public or private. The result was we added some 50 more bikes and 30 more cars to the Bangalore traffic? (Random numbers again, no background check I have done, it’s a random guess). We have added to some few decibels of noise pollution, to some level the environmental pollution and common man is not to be blamed, because at the end of the day, we have to reach office on time however we reach. No one accepts the delay in the time due to changing of the busses that I have to do or I get struck in the traffic!
Legal system is sleeping: As a result I took out my scooty for my daily travel to office. The distance is not less, but I do not have an option. It was only one day that I was hit by a truck when I was standing at the signal. Luckily nothing happened and I turned back to see what was the vehicle that actually hit and I saw it was a truck and in mean time 5 people come defending the truck driver saying it’s your fault. Not breaking the signal was my fault, as I saw the lights going red and I had stopped. Apparently the truck driver would have expected me to break it and go hence he forgot to apply the brakes! Whatever!!!! The traffic police (not one, there 3 were watching it happen), and they continued to watch without doing anything. Luckily I removed the helmet and seeing that I was girl, most of the people who came to fight, left. I didn’t prolong it long either, as I had the constraint of not knowing the language and I wouldn’t have got anything by proving that the truck driver was wrong. Actually one more interesting thing to note is, Police or the traffic control team also works only in general shift (mostly between 9am to 6pm) in Bangalore. At night we can hardly find them at signals, except few places where they do the alcohol test, with their selfishness to get money from the drunken people.
Finally what I did? The maximum thing which I could do was, to pick up the mail and feedback ID’s from the website of BMTC and airport authority to bring it to their notice about the change and told them that people who live below those flyovers are facing the issues, and requested them if they could find a solution for the same. Well I was glad for a minute that I got a revert back from the concerned teams which lasted only for few seconds as I realized that I just got a justification and not resolution. Justification that few busses are still running, which I can make use of! My Mail had clearly stated that both those two busses go straight from the Hebbal junction which is not right for people working in Manyata /Marthahalli and areas beyond them! But I was asked to make use of the service which do not fall on my route and that THESE BUSSES ARE MENT ONLY FOR AIRPORT TRAVELLERS! We work and do all analysis for foreign customer; can’t we do a bit of analysis before coming to such decisions? Please use the ticket dump (the electronic tickets generated in these bussed should have some records) not just for the revenue calculation, but also to see the routes and places where they are being used. And if the justifications are valid, I am sure people would accept it!
Aam aadmi is the sufferer wherever he goes. I wish I could sit on one of those flyovers, blocking them for few hours to make this issue heard by the right people. But if I am the only one going to do that, some truck would hit on and no police would be there to notice also. My life is too precious to let it go for such a petty thing which remained unnoticed even by media. I wondered if this issue could be reverted back overnight as it got changed?
Note: No offence to anyone or anything. I like Bangalore for its own reasons which every bangalorean is proud of! But traffic issue has been a thing for which we all want resolution. And this bus route change hasn’t brought anything good or rather added to the traffic problem. Feels bad that such thing also happens in my city of angels!
